The objective of this study was to investigate people’s perception of information security and to unveil the factors that influence people’s perception of different threats to information security. In the survey study, 602 respondents were asked to evaluate one of 21 common threats to information security with regard to its rank related to each of the 20 threat-related features. An exploratory factor analysis was then conducted, and a six-factor structure was derived, which includes factors of Knowledge, Impact, Severity, Controllability, Possibility and Awareness.
| Construct | Cites | Category | Questions given? | Content validity | Pretests | Response type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge | NEW | yes | based on 20 interviews | none | 7-point Likert scale | ||
| Impact | NEW | yes | based on 20 interviews | none | 7-point Likert scale | ||
| Severity | NEW | yes | based on 20 interviews | none | 7-point Likert scale | ||
| Controllability | NEW | yes | based on 20 interviews | none | 7-point Likert scale | ||
| Possibility | NEW | yes | based on 20 interviews | none | 7-point Likert scale | ||
| Awareness | NEW | yes | based on 20 interviews | none | 7-point Likert scale |
Ding-Long Huang, Pei-Luen Patrick Rau, and Gavriel Salvendy. Perception of information security. Behaviour & Information Technology, 29(3):221–232, May 2010. doi:10.1080/01449290701679361.
@article{huang_perception_2010,
author = {Huang, Ding-Long and Rau, Pei-Luen Patrick and Salvendy, Gavriel},
doi = {10.1080/01449290701679361},
issn = {0144-929X, 1362-3001},
journal = {Behaviour \& Information Technology},
language = {en},
month = {May},
number = {3},
pages = {221-232},
title = {Perception of Information Security},
volume = {29},
year = {2010}
}