It’s More Than Just Changing Your Password: Exploring the Nature and Antecedents of Cyber-Security Behaviors

Organizations have become increasingly concerned with developing and protecting their information security systems. Despite attempts to secure the information infrastructure, employees inside of organizations remain the largest source of threat to information cyber-security. While previous research has focused on behavioral and situational factors that influence cyber-security behaviors, the measurement of cyber behaviors and their relationship to other performance variables is poorly understood. The purpose of the present study is to 1) determine the underlying factor structure of a cyber-security behavior scale, 2) assess if individual personality traits predict four types of cyber-security behaviors: security assurance, security compliance, security risk, and security damaging behaviors, and 3) explore the relationship between citizenship and counterproductive work behaviors and cyber-security behaviors. Results indicate that cyber-security behavior can be separated into four distinct dimensions and that personality traits such as conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to experience are predictive of these behaviors. Additionally, positive cyber behaviors are related organizational citizenship behaviors, and potentially harmful cyber behaviors related to counterproductive work behaviors. This research has implications for using personality to predict cyber-security behaviors and reduce insider threat in the workplace