In an era where technologies play a much more important role, cybercrime becomes a much greater threat to the world. Previous literature suggests that many cyber criminals exploit users rather than technology to successfully attack. Therefore, in this paper we will look at the victims themselves and in particular, their personality traits. This paper focusses on the effect personality traits have on the online behavior of individuals. Specifically, a survey is used to analyze the relation between the 24-item HEXACO personality trait questionnaire by De Vries (2013) and the safe digital behavior using the Security Behavior Intentions Scale (SeBIS) by Egelman and Peer (2015). The HEXACO model consist of the following factors: HonestyHumility (H), Emotionality (E), Extraversion (X), Agreeableness (A), Conscientiousness (C), and Openness to Experience (O). This way we can identify to which personality trait an individual scores highest and what their Security Score is. The Security Score is a measure of how secure someone behaves online. In total 153 participants completed the survey. The results show that people who score high on the traits Conscientiousness and Agreeableness behave more securely online and are therefore less likely to become a victim of cybercrime. This research also tested whether there was an effect of age and education on the online behavior. No significant results have been found for an effect of these control variables on the online behavior. In this research, we managed to find two traits that could be considered as predictors of secure online behavior and cybercrime victimization.

SC van der Zee
hdl.handle.net/2105/52217
Business Economics
Erasmus School of Economics

BJ van Winsen. (2020, July 27). Determining secure digital behavior of individuals using HEXACO personality traits. Business Economics. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2105/52217