Managers’ Perceptions of Security Threats: The Case of Data Breaches

Abstract

Organizations survive to the extent that they are able to provide adequate protection for their critical resources: personnel, information, and assets. Malicious actors including competitors, disgruntled insiders, terrorists, and nations frequently seek to steal, harm, damage, or destroy a firms’ resources. These actors often prey on firms because they are suitable targets or vulnerable to attack, suggesting opportunity is present. Using crime theory of opportunity, we explain why perceptions of vulnerability exist in some industries or firms. Past archival studies have examined factors that increase or reduce the risk of firms experiencing a security breach, but such research remains nascent and does not take an inclusive approach. The current study attempts to replicate and extend the results of past archival research using a survey approach to explore predictors of security breaches. Using a sample of 265 senior executives, this study explores predictors of experiencing industry and firm security breaches. Through a crime theory of opportunity lens, the findings reveal that some industry, organizational, and executive characteristics are significantly related to perceptions regarding the frequency of security breaches by executives.