Predictors of Employees’ Mobile Security Practice: An Analysis of Personal and Work-Related Variables

Abstract

Personal mobile devices form an integral part of business activities today. Mobile devices, nevertheless, pose various security issues and data privacy threats, which require a close attention. The rational choice theory was utilized to examine the determinants of employees’ security behavior in relation to mobile device usage. Employees were postulated to rationally evaluate the costs and benefits of mobile security measures and decide on the option that is perceived to provide the best expected outcome. Twelve out of thirteen hypotheses examined in this study were found to be significant. We also hypothesized that demographics and work-related variables significantly affect employees’ mobile security practices, examined using ordinal logistic regression analysis. The findings indicate the efficacy of the rational choice theory in explaining mobile security behavior. Security inconvenience has been found to be a significant cost to information security measures. Moreover, the findings also showed the influence of gender, job function, past security experience, and perceived risk on the dependent variable. In conclusion, we would like to draw considerable attention to the contribution of security awareness programs and security training to good mobile security behaviors.

Keywords

• mobile security
• data privacy
• security awareness
• cost–benefit analysis
• rational choice theory