Abstract

The Security Behavior Intentions Scale (SeBIS) measures the computer security attitudes of end-users. Because intentions are a prerequisite for planned behavior, the scale could therefore be useful for predicting users’ computer security behaviors. We performed three experiments to identify correlations between each of SeBIS’s four sub-scales and relevant computer security behaviors. We found that testing high on the awareness sub-scale correlated with correctly identifying a phishing website; testing high on the passwords sub-scale correlated with creating passwords that could not be quickly cracked; testing high on the updating sub-scale correlated with applying software updates; and testing high on the securement sub-scale correlated with smartphone lock screen usage (e.g., PINs). Our results indicate that SeBIS predicts certain computer security behaviors and that it is a reliable and valid tool that should be used in future research.

SIGCHI Honorable Mention Award!

Citation

Serge Egelman, Marian Harbach, and Eyal Peer. Behavior Ever Follows Intention? A Validation of the Security Behavior Intentions Scale (SeBIS). In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’16). ACM, New York, NY, USA. 2016.