Date of Award
8-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Policy Studies
Committee Chair/Advisor
Dr. Lori Dickes
Committee Member
Dr. Bart Knijnenberg
Committee Member
Dr. Jeffrey Peake
Committee Member
Dr. Vaiva Kalesnikaite
Abstract
Amid a landscape of cyber attacks on America occurring below the threshold of armed conflict, strategic national policy efforts recommend a whole-of-nation approach where individuals and public and private organizations increase their defensive posture in cyberspace. Motivation to address the risk of a cyber event includes a continuum of cyber threats that can range from low-level disruptive events to cybercrime and cyber espionage to the possibility of a potentially catastrophic attack on critical infrastructure. In this dissertation, I conduct a survey experiment of various cyber threat conditions and cyber policies to model cybersecurity responses, risk perceptions to a possible cyber disaster, and the perceived effectiveness of organizational cyber policy. To achieve this objective, I offer three papers. In chapter two, I use an experimental approach to review the effect of different cyber threat conditions on risk perception and cybersecurity response. In chapter three, I apply a psychological risk perception framework towards the modeling of willingness to use individual cybersecurity privacy tools. Finally, in the fourth chapter, I use a fusion of expected utility models of protection motivation theory and the theory of planned behavior to model attitudes and intentions to comply with organizational cybersecurity policy while including policy and threat conditions.
Recommended Citation
Leon Guerrero, Vincent, "Cyber Threats, Cyber Risks, and Cybersecurity Responses: Modeling Whole-Of-Nation Strategy Implementation for American Organizations and Citizens" (2024). All Dissertations. 3721.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/3721
Included in
Defense and Security Studies Commons, Emergency and Disaster Management Commons, Human Factors Psychology Commons, Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons, Peace and Conflict Studies Commons, Public Policy Commons, Science and Technology Policy Commons, Science and Technology Studies Commons