How Perceived Benefits and Barriers Affect Millennial Professionals’ Online Security Behaviors

Over the past decade, there has been an increase in cybersecurity breaches through identity theft, hacking, phishing attacks, and the use of malware such as viruses, worms, or trojans. The breaches have triggered an increase in investment in information security in organizations. As technology continues to improve, the risks of having cybersecurity incidents also increase. Cybersecurity firms reported that in 2016, there were 1209 total breaches with 1.1 billion identities exposed. Most experts agree that human vulnerability is a significant factor in cybersecurity. Most issues related to advanced threats come from human nature and ignorance. For the study, the researcher examined the relationship between Millennial professionals’ perceptions of cybersecurity risks and users’ online security behaviors. The study focused on two elements of perception which are perceived benefits and perceived barriers. The researcher administered a survey to 109 participants randomly selected among Survey Monkey audience members. The Spearman’s correlation test performed supported the analysis of the strength of the relationship and the level of significance between each of the independent variables and the dependent variable. The results from the statistical test provided enough evidence to reject each of the null hypothesis tested in this study. There were significant correlations between each of the independent variables, Perceived Benefits (PBE) and Perceived Barriers (PBA) and the dependent variable Online Security Behaviors (OSB).