Information Security Policy Violations

*                              Participant Letter for Anonymous Surveys
      Nova Southeastern University Consent to be in a Research Study Entitled                  

Orientation and Social Influences Matter: An Expansion of Neutralization Model

The person doing this study is Frank King with the College of Engineering and Computing, Nova Southeastern University under the guidance of  Dr. Souren Paul. 

You are being asked to take part in this research study because you are associated in one of the following industries: Academia, Corporate, or Information Technology Professionals.

The purpose of this study is to find a better understanding of employee’s cognitive rationalization when making decisions from both a business and ethical orientation. Employees are seen as the number one threat to an organization’s security, and as a result, employees fall into neutralization techniques and commit information security policy violations. This research will provide an explanation to employee’s cognitive thinking that enable them to make either business or ethical decisions to accept neutralization techniques and ultimately commit information security violations. As a result, this research will help practitioners, information security managers, and information security scholars in writing information security policy which may aid in reducing violations and ultimately protect sensitive data.

If you are willing to participate and you are 18 years of age and older, this will be a one-time, anonymous survey. The survey will take approximately 12 minutes to complete. Responses to this survey are completely anonymous and no personal identifiable information (PII) will be collected.

This research study involves minimal risk to you. To the best of our knowledge, the things you will be doing have no more risk of harm than you would have in everyday life.

You can decide not to participate in this research, and it will not be held against you. You can exit the survey at any time. Participation in this study is completely voluntary.

There is no cost for participation in this study. Participation is voluntary and no payment will be provided.

Your responses are anonymous. Information we learn about you in this research study will be handled in a confidential manner, within the limits of the law. This data will be available to the researcher, the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and other representatives of this institution, and any granting agencies (if applicable). All confidential data will be kept securely. Data will be kept with a secure cloud service provider and all data will be kept for 36 months from the end of the study. All records must be kept for a minimum of 36 months. After that time, all data will be erased and permanently deleted and destroyed. All data collected will be cleared from databases and all backup copies will be deleted and destroyed.   

If you have questions, you can contact Frank King at 202-841-6195 Monday thru Friday from 9am – 6pm EST or via e-mail fk145@mynsu.nova.edu

If you have questions about the study but want to talk to someone else who is not a part of the study, you can call the Nova Southeastern University Institutional Review Board (IRB) at (954) 262-5369 or toll free at 1-866-499-0790 or email at IRB@nova.edu.

If you have read the above information and voluntarily wish to participate in this research study, you may proceed to the survey below: