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ABSTRACT
We aimed to understand whether warning message design recommendations address the reasons why non-experts choose to not protect themselves from cybersecurity threats. Toward that end, we synthesized literature to investigate why non-experts choose to not protect themselves, and catalog design recommendations aimed at influencing how non-experts think about threats. We then evaluated whether those recommendations addressed non-experts’ reasons. We are the first to synthesize and compare these important literatures. Our results revealed that current recommendations do not adequately address many of non-experts’ reasons for not protecting themselves. Therefore, implementing those recommendations probably will not convince those non-experts to protect themselves, which may partially explain why warning messages that implement current recommendations improve user compliance but to levels that are still lower than desired. Our results also highlight the need for future research that could lead to new warning message design recommendations that better address non-experts’ reasons for not protecting themselves.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under award # 1564293. Opinions, findings, and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Keith S. Jones
Keith S. Jones is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Texas Tech University. He received his PhD in Experimental Psychology with an emphasis on Human Factors Psychology from the University of Cincinnati in 2000.
Natalie R. Lodinger
Natalie R. Lodinger is a graduate student in the Texas Tech University Human Factors program.
Benjamin P. Widlus
Benjamin P. Widlus is a graduate student in the Texas Tech University Human Factors program.
Akbar Siami Namin
Akbar Siami Namin is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Texas Tech University. He received his PhD in Computer Science with an emphasis on Software engineering from the University of Western Ontario in 2008.
Rattikorn Hewett
Rattikorn Hewett is a Professor of Computer Science at Texas Tech University. She received her PhD in Computer Science from Iowa State University in 1986.