Purpose

Electronic waste (e-waste) such as discarded computers and smartphones may contain large amounts of confidential data. Improper handling of remaining information in e-waste can, therefore, drive information security risk. This risk, however, is not always properly assessed and managed. The authors take the protection motivation theory (PMT) lens of analysis to understand intentions to protect one's discarded electronic assets.

Design/methodology/approach

By applying structural equation modeling, the authors empirically tested the proposed model with survey data from 348 e-waste handling users.

Findings

Results highlight that (1) protection intention is influenced by the perceived threat of discarding untreated e-waste (a threat appraisal) and self-efficacy to treat the discarded e-waste (a coping appraisal) and (2) optimism bias plays a dual-role in a direct and moderating way to reduce the perceived threat of untreated e-waste and its effect on protection intentions.

Originality/value

Results support the assertions and portray a unique theoretical account of the processes that underline people's motivation to protect their data when discarding e-waste. As such, this study explains a relatively understudied information security risk behavior in the e-waste context, points to the role of optimism bias in such decisions and highlights potential interventions that can help to alleviate this information security risk behavior.

中文翻译：

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电子垃圾信息安全保护动机：乐观偏见的作用

目的

废弃的电脑和智能手机等电子垃圾（e-waste）可能包含大量机密数据。因此，对电子垃圾中剩余信息的不当处理会增加信息安全风险。然而，这种风险并不总是得到适当的评估和管理。作者采用保护动机理论 (PMT) 的分析视角来理解保护废弃电子资产的意图。

设计/方法/方法

通过应用结构方程模型，作者使用来自 348 名电子废物处理用户的调查数据对所提出的模型进行了实证测试。

发现

结果表明：（1）保护意愿受丢弃未处理电子垃圾的感知威胁（威胁评估）和处理废弃电子垃圾的自我效能（应对评估）的影响；（2）乐观偏见起双重作用- 以直接和适度的方式减少未经处理的电子废物的感知威胁及其对保护意图的影响。

原创性/价值

结果支持了这些断言，并描绘了一个独特的理论解释，这些过程强调了人们在丢弃电子垃圾时保护其数据的动机。因此，本研究解释了在电子废物背景下相对未被充分研究的信息安全风险行为，指出了乐观偏见在此类决策中的作用，并强调了有助于缓解这种信息安全风险行为的潜在干预措施。