Understanding Online Users’ Password Reuse Avoidance Behavior An Extended Protection Motivation Theory Perspective

With the popularity of the Internet, online users’accounts are increasing rapidly and password security becomes more and more important. However, Some surveys revealed that over two-thirds of users reused the same password across different accounts. When one account is attacked, other accounts are more vulnerable. In this case, it will largely bring negative externalities on other accounts and lead to the domino effect of information leakage. Therefore, it is necessary to delineate antecedents of online users’password reuse avoidance behavior. This is significant to predict and explain users’behavior intention, to establish reasonable and effective password protection programs and to regulate online users’ personal information security behavior.This article investigates the influencing factors of online users’password reuse behavior and the influence degree among them from the perspective of threat avoidance. Based on Protection Motivation Theory, we discuss the effects of threat appraisal and coping appraisal on avoidance intention. In addition, information security awareness is introduced into the original model and the theoretical model is build up. The theoretical model consists of seven factors such as perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, rewards, response efficacy, self-efficacy, response cost and information security awareness. Eight research hypotheses are proposed based on prior literature reviews. During the research, the model was tested using sample data collected from261online users.The results show that perceived vulnerability, response efficacy and information security awareness were significantly related to avoidance intention. However, the data analyses do not support perceived severity, rewards, response cost and self-efficacy as being predictors of password reuse avoidance intention. Finally, some guidance and suggestions about improving password security are provided from a personal, Internet website, and organization management perspective.