Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/16039
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dc.contributor.advisorSerrano-Rico, A-
dc.contributor.advisorGroen, D-
dc.contributor.authorIkhalia, Ehinome-
dc.date.accessioned2018-03-26T10:17:55Z-
dc.date.available2018-03-26T10:17:55Z-
dc.date.issued2017-
dc.identifier.urihttp://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/16039-
dc.descriptionThis thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University Londonen_US
dc.description.abstractThe main purpose of this thesis is to develop a malware threat avoidance model for users of online social networks (OSNs). To understand the research domain, a comprehensive and systematic literature review was conducted and then the research scope was established. Two design science iterations were carried out to achieve the research aim reported in this thesis. In the first iteration, the research extended the Technology Threat Avoidance Theory (TTAT) to include a unique characteristic of OSN – Mass Interpersonal Persuasion (MIP). The extended model (TTAT-MIP), focused on investigating the factors that needs to be considered in a security awareness system to motivate OSN users to avoid malware threats. Using a quantitative approach, the results of the first iteration suggests perceived severity, perceived threat, safeguard effectiveness, safeguard cost, self-efficacy and mass interpersonal persuasion should be included in a security awareness system to motivate OSN users to avoid malware threats. The second iteration was conducted to further validate TTAT-MIP through a Facebook video animation security awareness system (referred in this thesis as Social Network Criminal (SNC)). SNC is a Web-based application integrated within Facebook to provide security awareness to OSN users. To evaluate TTAT-MIP through SNC, three research techniques were adopted: lab experiments, usability study and semi-structured interviews. The results suggest that participants perceived SNC as a useful tool for malware threat avoidance. In addition, SNC had a significant effect on the malware threat avoidance capabilities of the study participants. Moreover, the thematic analysis of the semi-structured interviews demonstrated that the study participants‘ found SNC to be highly informative; persuasive; interpersonally persuasive; easy to use; relatable; fun to use; engaging; and easy to understand. These findings were strongly related to the constructs of TTAT-MIP. The research contributes to theory by demonstrating a novel approach to design and deploy security awareness systems in a social context. This was achieved by including users‘ behavioural characteristic on the online platform where malware threats occur within a security awareness system. Besides, this research shows how practitioners keen on developing systems to improve security behaviours could adopt the TTAT-MIP model for other related contexts.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherBrunel University Londonen_US
dc.relation.urihttp://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/16039/1/FulltextThesis.pdf-
dc.subjectMass interpersonal persuasionen_US
dc.subjectSocial engineering on social networksen_US
dc.subjectSecurity awareness on social networksen_US
dc.subjectSocial network malwareen_US
dc.subjectSocial network criminalen_US
dc.titleA malware threat avoidance model for online social network usersen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
Appears in Collections:Computer Science
Dept of Computer Science Theses

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