You’ve been Phished! The Effect of Threat Susceptibility in Fear Appeal Messages on Employee Security Training Motivation and Learning
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2025-01-07
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4509
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Despite the importance of information security training programs, employees often lack the motivation and engagement to participate in these initiatives. On the other hand, the information security literature has examined the motivational effect of fear appeals (persuasive messages) on individuals’ protective behaviors. It is thought that the perceived level of threat severity and susceptibility communicated in fear appeals arouse fear, thereby motivating individuals to protect themselves from the threat. The present study compared the effect of high and low threat susceptibility in fear appeal messages on employees' information security training behavior and subsequent protective behaviors. The results suggest that employees who were subjected to a higher threat susceptibility message were more likely to complete the suggested training, and when trained, were less likely to fall victims to a simulated phishing attack compared to those who completed the training in the low susceptibility group.
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Innovative Behavioral IS Security and Privacy Research, fear appeal, information security training, phishing, seta, threat susceptibility
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9
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Proceedings of the 58th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
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