Responsible Digital Security Behaviour: Definition and Assessment Model

Digital landscape transforms remarkably and grows exponentially tackling important societal challenges and needs. In the modern age, futuristic digital concepts are ideated and developed. These digital developments create a diverse pallet of opportunities for organizations and their members like decision makers and financial personnel. Simultaneously, they also introduce different factors that influence users’ behaviour related to digital security. However, no method exists to determine whether users’ behaviour could be considered responsible or not, and in case this behaviour is irresponsible, how it could be managed effectively to avoid negative consequences. Thus far, no attempt was made to investigate this to the best of our knowledge. Then this research aims to: (i) introduce ‘responsible digital security behaviour’ notion, (ii) identify different factors influencing this behaviour, (iii) design a Bayesian Network model that classifies responsible/irresponsible digital security behaviour considering these factors, and (iv) draw recommendations for improving users’ responsible digital security behaviour. To address these, extensive literature review is conducted through technical, ethical, and social lenses in a Design Science Research approach for defining, building, and exemplifying the model. The results contribute to increasing digital security awareness and empowering in a responsible way users’ behaviours and decision-processes involved in developing and adopting new standards, methodologies, and tools in the modern digital era.