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Cultural and Gender Differences in Password Behaviors: Evidence from China, Turkey and the UK

Published: 23 October 2016 Publication History

Abstract

A survey investigated the password behaviors of a sample of 202 men and women from three countries with very different cultures: China, Turkey and the UK. The survey covered four areas: the context of password use, password creation, password management and attitudes to passwords. A complex pattern of country and gender differences emerged, with most country differences in the context of password use and password creation behaviors, and gender differences in context of password use, password creation and management behaviors. There was little support for three hypotheses concerning cultural differences in password behaviors derived from the dimensions of Power Distance, Individualism-Collectivism, and Uncertainty Avoidance. However, the results suggest that both cultural background and gender need to be taken into account when studying users' password behaviors.

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    cover image ACM Other conferences
    NordiCHI '16: Proceedings of the 9th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction
    October 2016
    1045 pages
    ISBN:9781450347631
    DOI:10.1145/2971485
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    Published: 23 October 2016

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    Author Tags

    1. Password behaviors
    2. cultural differences
    3. gender differences
    4. password creation
    5. password management

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    • (2024)Digital Competences in Cybersecurity of Teachers in TrainingComputers in the Schools10.1080/07380569.2024.236161441:3(281-306)Online publication date: 5-Jul-2024
    • (2024)Design and Evaluation of a Password Diversifier ToolProceedings of the 14th Indian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1007/978-981-97-4335-3_3(51-74)Online publication date: 3-Aug-2024
    • (2024)Are Swedish Passwords Tougher Than the Rest?Secure IT Systems10.1007/978-3-031-79007-2_1(3-21)Online publication date: 6-Nov-2024
    • (2022)Age and Gender Impact on Password HygieneApplied Sciences10.3390/app1202089412:2(894)Online publication date: 16-Jan-2022
    • (2022)Behavioral attributes in password reuse: Analysis of password practices in work and personal spacesProceedings of the 13th Indian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3570211.3570212(1-19)Online publication date: 9-Nov-2022
    • (2020)The importance of social identity on password formulationsPersonal and Ubiquitous Computing10.1007/s00779-020-01477-1Online publication date: 7-Nov-2020
    • (2019)Fuzzy Logic Application to Link National Culture and Cybersecurity Maturity2019 IEEE 5th International Conference on Collaboration and Internet Computing (CIC)10.1109/CIC48465.2019.00046(330-337)Online publication date: Dec-2019
    • (2019)Perceptions of Risk, Benefits and Likelihood of Undertaking Password Management Behaviours: Four ComponentsHuman-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 201910.1007/978-3-030-29381-9_34(549-563)Online publication date: 2-Sep-2019
    • (2018)Generational differences in password management behaviourProceedings of the 32nd International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.60(1-10)Online publication date: 4-Jul-2018
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