An Exploratory Study of the Security Management Practices of Hispanic Students

摘要

The growing Internet and mobile technologies create opportunities for efficient communication and coordination among individuals and institutions. However, these technologies also pose security challenges. Although usersa?? understanding and behavior towards security solutions have been recognized as critical to ensuring effective security solutions, few research articles have examined user security management practices. The literature lacks empirical research that examines usersa?? everyday behavior and practices to managing security. In an effort to bridge the gap in user security management practices, this paper presents an exploratory study of how Hispanic college students manage the security of their computer systems. Specifically, we examine how ethnicity, gender, and age influence usersa?? behavior towards updating their operating systems, non-operating system software and antivirus definitions. The results reveal that gender influences the frequency of updating operating systems, antivirus definitions and non-operating system software, whereas ethnicity and age influence only frequency of update of operating systems but not the frequency of update of non-operating system software and antivirus definitions.