Mindful Defense Against Mobile Security Threats: Conceptualization and Operationalization of Mobile Security Mindfulness

Abstract

Mobile technologies have become integral to daily life, and security threats that target personal mobile devices are emerging as a result. Because the information security (InfoSec) literature has focused largely on the workplace, it has yet to fully take into account the unique security issues that arise from users’ daily mobile-use settings and the contextual characteristics of those settings. To advance InfoSec research, this paper theorizes an individual’s dynamic, mobile security mindset for recognizing and responding to mobile security threats (MSTs) as mobile security mindfulness (MSM). Using a two-phase mixed-methods approach, we develop this novel construct with four core dimensions identified through qualitative interviews. We then develop and validate a multidimensional scale for measuring MSM using quantitative methods. Our study on MSM construct and instrument development provides a novel theoretical lens for understanding mobile-device users’ situational decision-making in MSTs responses, enhances the theoretical precision of mindfulness theory in mobile-security contexts, and offers a tool for predicting users’ security behaviors specific to mobile device use.