Disentangling a complicated relationship: information technology and consideration of harm in information security

Abstract

Information Systems Security (ISS) risks have the capacity to harm others; thus, behaviors carrying such risks may raise moral concerns. Existing research shows that moral considerations of users could play an inhibitory role, discouraging users from engaging in activities that undermine ISS. However, information technology (IT) may create difficulties for users to understand and perceive the moral implications of their ISS decisions. If such difficulties distract or confuse users regarding the potential harm and ways to prevent such harm, moral considerations may not play the inhibitory role that previous ISS research has reported. Therefore, examining the role of IT characteristics in users’ moral considerations is of necessity. With this in mind, this dissertation aims to conceptualize and examine the potential means via which IT characteristics could introduce challenges to moral considerations of users. It will achieve this through a literature review and conceptualization of the role of IT characteristics in moral considerations of ISS, followed by an empirical study. The empirical examination concerns the process whereby individuals become aware of the potential harmful consequences of their actions for the welfare of others and realize that a decision-making situation is morally relevant. This process is called moral sensitivity and involves recognition of the parties involved, potential consequences for those involved and the possible courses of action in a given situation. By examining moral sensitivity, several IT characteristics are unearthed, perceptions of which could be linked with recognition of harm and users’ emotional engagement in ISS decisions. In doing so, this dissertation contributes to the disentanglement of links between users’ understanding of harm, their perceptions of IT characteristics, and their affective experiences in ISS decisions. Keywords: information security, moral sensitivity, IT characteristics