Toward Security Capitulation Theory

This paper describes an exploratory study of capitulation theory which explains individuals’ feelings of surrender and inevitability because of distrust of security, theft of privacy, vulnerability and security threats. The never-ending data breach notices, security breaches and a lack of control may cause individual users to give up on security or capitulate affecting organizational security. We hypothesized users have given up on performing cybersecurity measures because they believe security breaches are unavoidable. We propose security capitulation theory to explain these surrendering behaviors. To test the theory, we craft a survey research model based on technology threat avoidance and protection motivation theory. Results indicated some explanatory power and provide opportunities for security capitulation theory improvement. This exploratory study provides initial insights into security capitulation behaviors.