Insider threats are one of the major potential risks jeopardizing organizational security. Many organizations have applied opportunity-reducing techniques to enhance security. These techniques have been classified into hard and soft forms based on their potential propensity to infringe on employees’ personal space. Hard form techniques have been widely adopted owing to their efficiency in saving cost and time. However, this study argues that hard form techniques would restrict personal autonomy, leading employees to disrespect the organizational security policies. To test the research hypotheses, a scenario-based questionnaire survey was conducted on 5,158 Prolific Academic members with working experience in the service industry and research and development, and the information industry. Two hundred and fifty-nine valid responses were analyzed using partial least square based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that the hard form techniques induce employees to feel intrusion of their privacy, making them morally irresponsible for their behavior, and even committing an insider attack. Hard form techniques can produce an adverse effect that is opposite to the intended purpose. The results imply that the practical method of making hard controls less intrusive, including the implementation of soft controls and horizontal decision-making processes for security policies, should be explored.

内部威胁是危害组织安全的主要潜在风险之一。许多组织已应用减少机会的技术来增强安全性。这些技术根据其侵犯员工个人空间的潜在倾向被分为硬形式和软形式。硬成型技术因其在节省成本和时间方面的效率而被广泛采用。然而，这项研究认为，硬形式技术会限制个人自主权，导致员工不尊重组织安全政策。为了验证研究假设，我们对 5,158 名在服务业和研发以及信息产业有工作经验的多产学术成员进行了基于情景的问卷调查。使用基于偏最小二乘的结构方程模型 (PLS-SEM) 分析了 259 个有效响应。结果表明，硬形式技术使员工感觉自己的隐私受到侵犯，使他们对自己的行为在道德上不负责任，甚至进行内部攻击。硬成型技术会产生与预期目的相反的不利影响。结果意味着应该探索使硬控制减少侵入性的实用方法，包括软控制的实施和安全策略的横向决策过程。甚至进行内部攻击。硬成型技术会产生与预期目的相反的不利影响。结果意味着应该探索使硬控制减少侵入性的实用方法，包括软控制的实施和安全策略的横向决策过程。甚至进行内部攻击。硬成型技术会产生与预期目的相反的不利影响。结果意味着应该探索使硬控制减少侵入性的实用方法，包括软控制的实施和安全策略的横向决策过程。