Understanding Information Security Behaviours of Tanzanian Government Employees

Abstract

This article investigates security behaviours of employees using the Health Belief Model (HBM) as a theoretical lens. Given the fact that previous studies on security behaviours paid much attention to conscious information security behaviours; this article extends the HBM to study both habitual or automatic security behaviours (security habit) and conscious security behaviours of Tanzanian government employees. A structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was used for data analysis. The study found that, the intentions of government employees to practice information security behaviour is influenced by perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, perceived barriers, and cues to action and security habits. Their intentions, however, is not affected by perceived benefits and self-efficacy. Further, an employee's intentions and security habits has a significant effect on actual security practice. Generally, the extended research model enriches the understanding of the role played by both conscious and habitual security behaviours on information security behaviours of employees.

The Effects of Applying Privacy by Design to Preserve Privacy and Personal Data Protection in Mobile Cloud Computing: An Exploratory Study

“…For Hypothesis 1 (H1), as illustrated in Table 6 and Figure 6, the result of this study is highly supported the perceived benefits are positively related to privacy and personal data protection behavior in MCC (b = 0.315, SE = 0.56, p = 0.000). The current result is now lead to the same findings of the previous work by Ng et al [15], Claar et al [49], Humaidi et al [19,50], Williams et al [20], and Koloseni et al [51] that the perceived benefits are positively related to behavior [15,19,20,[49][50][51].…”

“…For Hypothesis 6 (H6), as demonstrated in a group of previous studies by Ng et al [15], Humaidi et al [19], and Koloseni et al [51], and Williams et al [20], the perceived severity is positively related to behavior [15,19,20,51]. The outcome of this study, as shown in Table 6, supported that perceived severity related to privacy and personal data protection behavior in MCC through perceived threat (b = 0.60, SE = 0.025, p = 0.007).…”

“…For Hypothesis 2 (H2), as shown in Table 6 and Figure 6, the result of this study is highly supported perceived barriers are negatively related to privacy and personal data protection behavior in MCC (b = −0.134, SE = 0.52, p = 0.005). Indeed, the perceived barriers are negatively related as founded in previous work by Ng et al [15], Claar et al [49], Humaidi et al [19,50], Williams et al [20], and Koloseni et al [51].…”

“…Generally, the HBM was utilized in information systems' security domain [15,19,20,[49][50][51]. In addition, the current study adopts the HBM for the following reasons:…”

“…The HBM tackles personal human issues towards assessing and modeling the impacts of the diseases [15,19,20,[49][50][51]. Information systems security experts have adopted the HBM for modeling and assessing personal issues, such as personal data protection and privacy.…”