Scaling the Security Wall: Developing a Security Behavior Intentions Scale (SeBIS)

TitleScaling the Security Wall: Developing a Security Behavior Intentions Scale (SeBIS)
Publication TypeConference Paper
Year of Publication2015
AuthorsEgelman, S., & Peer E.
Published inProceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’15)
PublisherACM
Place PublishedNew York, NY, USA
Other Numbers3739
Abstract

Despite the plethora of security advice and online education materials offered to end-users, there exists no standard measurement tool for end-user security behaviors. We present the creation of such a tool. We surveyed the most common computer security advice that experts offer to end-users in order to construct a set of Likert scale questions to probe the extent to which respondents claim to follow this advice. Using these questions, we iteratively surveyed a pool of 3,619 computer users to refine our question set such that each question was applicable to a large percentage of the population, exhibited adequate variance between respondents, and had high reliability (i.e., desirable psychometric properties). After performing both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, we identified a 16-item scale consisting of four sub-scales that measures attitudes towards choosing passwords, device securement, staying up-to-date, and proactive awareness.

Acknowledgment

This work was partially supported by funding provided to ICSI through National Science Foundation grant CNS : 1343433 (“EAGER: Designing Individualized Privacy and Security Systems”). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors or originators and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

URLhttps://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/pubs/networking/scalingwall15.pdf
Bibliographic Notes

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’15), New York, New York

Abbreviated Authors

S. Egelman and E. Peer

ICSI Research Group

Usable Security and Privacy

ICSI Publication Type

Article in conference proceedings