Who Responded to Equifax? Self-Protection Strategies When Guardians Fail

ABSTRACT

Routine activity theory suggests that crime occurs when a motivated offender meets a suitable target and no capable guardian is present. In identity theft that occurs online, potential victims can sometimes act as their own guardians. Self-protection strategies, such as identity theft monitoring software, can be implemented by potential victims to act as guardians against identity theft. Little is known about the situations when a suitable target becomes their own guardian. This article seeks to understand this situation by looking at self-protection behaviors after the Equifax breach of 2017. Using data from a North Carolina Poll Survey, we examine self-protection measures implemented following this potential victimization. When do individuals enact their own self-guardian behaviors? We find that measures of computer use do not predict whether an individual will enact self-protection measures following the Equifax breach. Rather, we find that negative emotions around identity theft lead individuals to enact self-protection measures.

KEYWORDS:

• Technology
• routine activities theory
• fraud
• victimization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).