Table 2.

Study Variables

Research Question	Variable	Definition
Question 1	Susceptibility	Individuals’ perception about whether they are susceptible to security breaches
	Severity	Individuals’ perception of how severe the outcome of a breach would be
	Threat	Whether the individuals expected that their device would be compromised
Question 2	Effectiveness	The individuals’ perceived effectiveness of a safeguard
	Cost	The cost of implementing a safeguard
	Self-efficacy	Whether individuals believe that they are capable of installing and using security mechanisms that prevent security breaches
Question 3	Motivation	Whether individuals were motivated to secure the mobile device
	Behavior	Whether individuals actually secured their mobile device
	Awareness	Whether the individuals were aware of intervention mechanisms for mobile devices, such as anti-malware software, passwords or biometrics, encryption, anti-theft apps, and backing up the mobile device