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College students information security awareness: a comparison between smartphones and computers

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Abstract

The rapid technological developments associated with the decrease in the cost of smartphones made the latter more accessible and convenient to be used. In an educational setting, students are increasingly bringing their smartphones to classrooms, this could have serious security implications, particularly when students are less aware of smartphone information security threats. This paper is set out to provide an empirical comparison in the level of information security awareness among college students in terms of knowledge and behavior. The main aim is to find the difference between students’ awareness level of information security using smartphones vs. computers. A descriptive research design was adopted and an online survey method was employed. Research findings showed that students were highly aware of some information security concepts, however, they behaved differently in protecting their smartphones compared to computers. Training campaigns are suggested to be conducted aiming to educate students with possible information security risks related to smartphone usage in educational settings.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the research participants for taking part in this study. We also thank the four professors who evaluated our questionnaire.

Availability of data and materials

The data used in this article will not be shared because we still have to do more analysis and get new findings from our data sets.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Library and Information Science Department - School of Educational Science, The University of Jordan, Amman, 11942, Jordan

    Nashrawan Taha

  2. Management Information Systems Department - School of Business, The University of Jordan, Amman, 11942, Jordan

    Laila Dahabiyeh

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  1. Nashrawan Taha
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  2. Laila Dahabiyeh
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Correspondence to Nashrawan Taha.

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Participants were asked to fill an online questionnaire through the University Learning Management System, and this was completely optional. We considered filling in the questionnaire as an indication of participants’ consent to take part in the study.

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Participants have filled an online survey, and the participation was anonymous.

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 6 Information Security Awareness Questions
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Table 7 Information Security Awareness Survey (Computer vs Smartphone)
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Taha, N., Dahabiyeh, L. College students information security awareness: a comparison between smartphones and computers. Educ Inf Technol 26, 1721–1736 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10330-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10330-0

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