Cybersecurity Leadership: Technology Threat Avoidance Factors Affecting Cybersecurity Professionals’ Willingness to Share Information

Abstract

Through the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, a DHS information-sharing program was mandated to protect U.S. businesses and critical infrastructure and mitigate cyberattacks. The present study examined cybersecurity professionals’ willingness to collaborate and share information regarding cybersecurity threats via that program. The technology threat avoidance theory (TTAT) served as the study’s theoretical framework. This research examined to what extent technology threat avoidance factors affect cybersecurity professionals’ willingness to collaborate and share information regarding cybersecurity threats? Threat avoidance factors consisted of perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived threat, prevention effectiveness, prevention cost, and self-efficacy. This cross-sectional study used partial least squares-structural equation modeling to analyze data collected from 137 cybersecurity professionals with 5+ years of cybersecurity experience. The data analysis indicated that perceived susceptibility and perceived severity significantly predicted participants’ perceptions of cybersecurity threats, and perceived threat explained 44% of the variance in avoidance motivation. Prevention effectiveness, prevention cost, and self-efficacy were not significant predictors of avoidance motivations and the willingness to participate in the DHS’s information-sharing program. These results indicate that more research is necessary to understand the factors influencing information sharing among cybersecurity professionals working in U.S. organizations.