Warning! A Comprehensive Model of the Effects of Digital Information Security Warning Messages

Despite existing countermeasures to combat malicious actions, users are the last line of defense to protect personal and organizational assets. Given that users often ignore warning messages that motivate compliant behavior, the issue of protecting personal and organizational assets is exacerbated. Messages that are largely ignored cannot have any impact on attitudes, motivation, or behavior. Therefore, crafting messages that increase attention and comprehension regarding specific threats and ways to cope with these threats is vital. This research combines the communication-human information processing (C-HIP) model with protection motivation theory (PMT) to assess how warning message content affects adherence especially when users pay attention to the content of the warning message. In essence, this study considers a holistic view of examining the channel (warning message), attention, comprehension and their influence on attitudes and beliefs, motivation, and behavior. Additionally, we propose including alternative courses of action in digital warning messages to increase secure attitudes, beliefs, and behavior. We test this holistic model through a series of field and lab experiments to evaluate message comprehension, attitudes, and beliefs and capture actual attention and secure behavior.
[http://ifip.byu.edu/ifip2015.html Paper download]