Schmidt 2009
Schmidt 2009
To cite this article: Mark B. Schmidt , Jim Q. Chen , Dien D. Phan & Kirk P. Arnett (2009)
Security Perceptions of e-Commerce Users, Journal of Internet Commerce, 8:1-2, 44-57, DOI:
10.1080/15332860903341307
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Journal of Internet Commerce, 8:44–57, 2009
Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1533-2861 print=1553-287X online
DOI: 10.1080/15332860903341307
KIRK P. ARNETT
Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi, USA
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INTRODUCTION
44
Security Perceptions of e-Commerce Users 45
practices, and e-commerce trust between light and heavy Internet users. This
study investigates the differences in perceptions between light and heavy
Internet users in relation to 10 security constructs developed utilizing factor
analysis. An overview on e-commerce security threats, malware, and trust is
provided in the next two sections. Then the research methodology is dis-
cussed, followed by discussion of the study results. The article concludes
with a summary and suggestions for future research.
Trust
A successful e-commerce transaction is based on trust among the
participants. E-commerce security is the basis for building the trust.
According to Ratnasingam and Phan (2003) trust is the psychological trait
found in trading partners who are willing to pursue relationships and=or
interdependencies. Common factors that influence e-commerce trust include
trading partners’ financial status, reputation, competence, benevolence,
reliability, understandability, security in payment, business culture, consumer
protection, law and social sanctions, successes, and peer referrals.
Ratnasingam and Phan also classify trust based on three perspectives:
economic and organizational, technological, and behavioral.
From the economic and organizational perspectives, the three principal
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METHODOLOGY
Observed from a very rudimentary level, all security threats fall into two
types: technical and nontechnical. In a technical attack, software and knowl-
edge are used to make attacks. These attacks include denial of services and
malicious code such as viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and spyware.
Non-technical attacks exploit the weaknesses in human behavior such as
trust, greed, and fear to gain access to computer systems using social
engineering methods used in phishing, e-mail messages with malicious
attachments, and Nigerian scams. Because the success of social engineering
depends on the vulnerable behaviors of the victims, in order to combat social
engineering Damle (2002) proposed education and training for users, poli-
cies and procedures, and penetration testing using white hat hackers.
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RESULTS
Component
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
V6 .071 .752 .003 .079 .095 .055 .163 .020 .192 .055
V7 .035 .856 .050 .046 .013 .097 .109 .004 .190 .006
V8 .010 .821 .026 .053 .009 .072 .089 .018 .134 .001
V9 .055 .870 .024 .064 .017 1.7E-005 .096 .065 .043 .050
V10 .064 .796 .023 .104 .009 .054 .054 .004 .098 .039
V11 .070 .731 .121 .078 .137 .037 .262 .004 .158 .024
V12 .048 .679 .078 .017 .040 .008 .264 .042 .262 .042
V13 .428 .114 .077 .001 .187 .089 .050 .230 .511 .309
V14 .272 .011 .081 .052 .056 .036 .151 .142 .761 .037
V15 .657 .049 .135 .092 .055 .003 .175 .393 .069 .069
V16 .846 .040 .010 .079 .107 .144 .062 .016 .011 .111
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V17 .898 .029 .007 .026 .016 .140 .010 .053 .024 .067
V18 .826 .067 .035 .014 .184 .081 .048 .084 .115 .111
V19 .811 .003 .101 .026 .188 .097 .126 .018 .069 .044
V20 .705 .103 .061 .021 .187 .088 .071 .122 .072 .131
V21 .734 .075 .067 .062 .195 .069 .204 .008 .134 .021
V22 .724 .031 .020 .114 .139 .033 .198 .115 .059 .138
V23 .150 .050 .073 .095 .141 .740 .111 .120 .003 .064
V24 .180 .026 .051 .150 .097 .694 .001 .262 .036 .141
V25 .317 .088 .008 .065 .046 .568 .268 .211 .027 .081
V26 .143 .007 .083 .102 .141 .185 .707 .041 .277 .005
V27 .091 .024 .098 .028 .138 .004 .776 .112 .066 .024
V28 .040 .078 .024 .020 .074 .700 .090 .092 .121 .125
V29 .120 .086 .036 .068 .002 .001 .147 .759 .116 .016
V30 .232 .017 .106 .004 .194 .185 .048 .101 .078 .734
V31 .409 .005 .098 .010 .690 .079 .047 .075 .083 .103
V32 .331 .039 .030 .086 .780 .037 .236 .085 .119 .014
V33 .327 .014 .035 .062 .792 .069 .184 .134 .095 .026
V34 .070 .169 .381 .024 .131 .460 .125 .239 .026 .225
V35 .082 .131 .131 .024 .154 .178 .067 .276 .134 .619
V36 .049 .124 .126 .124 .418 .026 .028 .581 .124 .180
V37 .065 .008 .756 .063 .053 .002 .036 .052 .209 .050
V38 .017 .114 .786 .141 .042 .079 .118 .060 .108 .009
V39 .020 .002 .843 .021 .056 .066 .074 .077 .020 .034
V40 .029 .071 .779 .213 .018 .053 .083 .027 .171 .050
V41 .036 .049 .091 .910 .012 .070 .071 .083 .024 .004
V42 .041 .046 .090 .929 .050 .021 .034 .019 .074 .008
V43 .036 .065 .082 .945 .021 .045 .011 .056 .002 .012
Note. aRotation converged in 7 iterations. Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation
Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
TABLE 2 ANOVA
TABLE 3 Hypotheses
Hypothesis Result
H1: Light and heavy Internet users will have differing perceptions Supported
of risk awareness.
H2: Light and heavy Internet users will have differing perceptions Not supported
of e-commerce trust.
H3: Light and heavy Internet users will have differing perceptions Not supported
of malware detection and removal.
H4: Light and heavy Internet users will have differing perceptions Not supported
of helpdesk responsibilities.
H5: Light and heavy Internet users will have differing perceptions Not supported
of virus awareness.
H6: Light and heavy Internet users will have differing perceptions Supported
of password practices.
H7: Light and heavy Internet users will have differing perceptions Not supported
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of e-commerce practices.
H8: Light and heavy Internet users will have differing perceptions Supported
of malware effect.
H9: Light and heavy Internet users will have differing perceptions Supported
of phishing awareness.
H10: Light and heavy Internet users will have differing perceptions Supported
of virus transmittal.
a light user is defined as a user who on average uses less than 15 hours per
week; a heavy user uses the Internet more than 15 hours per week. In total
there were 127 light and 76 heavy Internet users. It is hypothesized that
heavy and light users will have differing perspectives in regard to the 10 iden-
tified constructs. Table 2 presents the ANOVA comparisons that provide the
statistical evidence to support 5 of the 10 hypotheses. A summary of the
hypotheses can be seen in Table 3.
TABLE 4 Means
Light
Mean .1469640 .0420976 .0437527 .0118603 .1000432
n 127 127 127 127 127
Std. Deviation 0.93274350 1.04508374 1.02130467 0.96928146 1.08193922
Heavy
Mean .2589853 .0641275 .0778098 .0226887 .99822521
n 76 76 76 76 76
Std. Deviation 1.05124394 0.93220799 0.97818471 1.06785439 0.83434369
Total
Mean .0050170 .0023286 .0017584 .0010743 .0025431
N 203 203 203 203 203
Std. Deviation 0.99588341 1.00328567 1.00467222 1.00483498 1.00229713
52 M. B. Schmidt et al.
TABLE 5 Means
Light
Mean .1453013 .0098513 .1409652 .1307163 .0995452
n 127 127 127 127 127
Std. Deviation 0.97362844 0.95374498 0.80481377 0.96725813 1.03289200
Heavy
Mean .2438461 .0336741 .2359235 .2226409 .1899211
n 76 76 76 76 76
Std. Deviation 1.01514128 1.07846089 1.24165284 1.03145358 0.91560210
Total
Mean .0003894 .0064439 .0001360 .0015751 .0088264
N 203 203 203 203 203
Std. Deviation 1.00476750 0.99983720 1.00492548 1.00398493 0.99822521
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Two hundred and five users were surveyed in regard to their e-commerce
use and security perceptions. Factor analysis reveals that data from the res-
pondents form 10 factors. Further analysis reveals that there are differences
Security Perceptions of e-Commerce Users 53
REFERENCES
Ajzen, I. 1991. The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior & Human
Decision Processes 50:179–211.
Bernstein, T., A. Bhimani, E. Schultz, and C. Siegel. 1996. Internet security for
business. New York: Wiley.
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APPENDIX A Survey Questions that Yielded the Data Used in Factor Analysis (Please mark
the response that best reflects your beliefs with respect to e-commerce security between 1 and
6 ( ¼ strongly disagree ¼ strongly agree).
Strongly Strongly
disagree Neutral agree
(Continued )
Security Perceptions of e-Commerce Users 55
APPENDIX A Continued
Strongly Strongly
disagree Neutral agree
personal information.
24 I trade my personal data for free stuff
online.
25 I frequently update my antivirus software.
26 Computer viruses and other malware can
be obtained by sharing disks.
27 Computer viruses and other malware can
be obtained by e-mail.
28 Computer viruses and other malware can
be obtained via the Internet.
29 Damage to computer systems from virus
and other malware is irreversible.
30 Viruses and other malware are typically
transmitted by accident.
31 Damage to computer systems from virus
and other malware has a minimal effect
on the workplace.
32 Viruses are difficult to detect.
33 Viruses are difficult to remove.
34 Spyware is difficult to detect.
35 Spyware is difficult to remove.
36 Computer staff such as the helpdesk should
be responsible for the detection of viruses
and other malware.
37 Computer staff such as the helpdesk should
be responsible for the removal of viruses
and other malware.
38 Computer staff such as the helpdesk should
be responsible for the detection and
removal of viruses and other malware.
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Initial eigenvalues Extraction sums of squared loadings Rotation sums of squared loadings
Component Total % of Variance Cumulative % Total % of Variance Cumulative % Total % of Variance Cumulative %
56
2 4.858 12.785 32.289 4.858 12.785 32.289 4.512 11.875 27.122
3 3.118 8.206 40.495 3.118 8.206 40.495 2.832 7.454 34.575
4 2.358 6.206 46.701 2.358 6.206 46.701 2.801 7.372 41.948
5 2.019 5.313 52.014 2.019 5.313 52.014 2.297 6.044 47.991
6 1.794 4.721 56.735 1.794 4.721 56.735 2.288 6.020 54.011
7 1.520 4.001 60.736 1.520 4.001 60.736 1.727 4.544 58.556
8 1.213 3.192 63.928 1.213 3.192 63.928 1.534 4.036 62.592
9 1.084 2.852 66.780 1.084 2.852 66.780 1.360 3.578 66.170
10 1.017 2.675 69.455 1.017 2.675 69.455 1.248 3.285 69.455
11 .934 2.458 71.912
12 .875 2.303 74.216
13 .772 2.032 76.247
14 .738 1.943 78.191
15 .704 1.852 80.042
16 .639 1.682 81.725
17 .581 1.530 83.254
18 .549 1.446 84.700
19 .518 1.364 86.064
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57
38 .088 .232 100.000