ABSTRACT

This study aims to study the internet security compliance behavior in a public Wi-Fi usage condition. We developed our research framework and hypotheses with the consideration of the protection motivation theory. Assembling questions from existing literature, we collected opinions from a group of college students who know and use public Wi-Fi. Using structural equation modeling, we examined the role of coping appraisal, threat appraisal, and fear to the avoidance behavior. Our findings are that fear is an important determinant to the user’s avoidance behavior and that coping appraisal is indirectly enhancing fear. Through this study, we provide support to use fear as a major control mechanism to the high-risk behavior in a less controlled environment. We also provided another perspective for how the fear is developed so that policy makers can have additional method to improve compliance behavior.

摘要

本研究旨在研究公共 Wi-Fi 使用条件下的互联网安全合规行为。我们在考虑保护动机理论的情况下制定了我们的研究框架和假设。从现有文献中收集问题，我们收集了一群了解和使用公共 Wi-Fi 的大学生的意见。使用结构方程模型，我们检查了应对评估、威胁评估和恐惧对回避行为的作用。我们的研究结果是，恐惧是用户回避行为的重要决定因素，而应对评估间接地增强了恐惧。通过这项研究，我们支持在控制较少的环境中使用恐惧作为高风险行为的主要控制机制。