Factors Influencing Undergraduate Students' Protective Motivation Towards AI-Generated Phishing Emails at Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53840/e-jpi.v13i2.426Keywords:
AI-generated phishing emails, , Protection Motivation Theory, protection motivation, protective behaviour, undergraduate studentsAbstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) has made phishing emails more sophisticated and convincing, posing significant cybersecurity risks to university students. To address this issue, this research applied Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to examine the factors influencing undergraduate students’ protective behaviour toward AI-generated phishing emails. A quantitative , cross-sectional survey was conducted among 200 undergraduate students at Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). The collected data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) through SmartPLS software. The findings revealed that perceived vulnerability, response efficacy, and self-efficacy significantly influenced students’ protection motivation, whereas perceived severity and response cost did not have significant effects. In addition, protection motivation was found to significantly influence students’ protective behaviour toward AI-generated phishing emails. The findings also indicated that response efficacy had the strongest influence on protection motivation among the examined factors. This research contributes to the understanding of cybersecurity behaviour in higher education by extending the application of Protection Motivation Theory in the context of AI-generated phishing emails. The findings provide useful insights for universities and policymakers in developing effective cybersecurity awareness campaigns and educational programs to strengthen students' protective behavior against AI-generated phishing threats.
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