Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences – Department of Conflict Resolution Studies

First Advisor

Elena P. Bastidas

Second Advisor

Solomon Losha

Third Advisor

Urzula Zanko

Keywords

Computer science

Abstract

This research focused on examining attitudinal differences of Internet utilization and security with the objective of understanding the relationships that cyber usability have with cybercrime and then determine best practices needed to promote the secure use of the Internet. The research was designed as a quantitative study that used judgment sampling to survey 433 cases to explain the relationship that exists between cyber utilization and security. To achieve this objective, research questions and hypothesis were designed to guide the analysis. Cross tabulation analysis was used to compare the dependent and independent variables while Chi-square, Lambda and Gamma statistical tests were used to verify the relationship and identify statistical significance of the relationship. The findings revealed that while variables like being IT savvy, amount of financial loss, education, age, gender and residence location did not have evidence of a relationship with security, research participants had concern for secure cyber use and thought that cybersecurity awareness training and type of transaction conducted on the Internet were associated to security even though the strength of each relationship was weak. The study highlighted the damaging effects of cybercrime and recommended that cyber users should embrace best practice principles as they browse the Internet and utilize cybersecurity awareness training as an important function of secure IT utilization.

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