{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T13:03:33Z","timestamp":1787317413536,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":15,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,4,8]],"date-time":"2017-04-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1491609600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Information"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Young generations make extensive use of mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, while a plethora of security risks associated with such devices are induced by vulnerabilities related to user behavior. Furthermore, the number of security breaches on or via portable devices increases exponentially. Thus, deploying suitable risk treatments requires the investigation of how the digital natives (young people, born and bred in the digital era) use their mobile devices and their level of security awareness, in order to identify common usage patterns with negative security impact. In this article, we present the results of a survey performed across a multinational sample of digital natives with distinct backgrounds and levels of competence in terms of security, to identify divergences in user behavior due to regional, educational and other factors. Our results highlight significant influences on the behavior of digital natives, arising from user confidence, educational background, and parameters related to usability and accessibility. The outcomes of this study justify the need for further analysis of the topic, in order to identify the influence of fine-grained semantics, but also the consolidation of wide and robust user-models.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/info8020042","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,4,13]],"date-time":"2017-04-13T02:39:17Z","timestamp":1492051157000},"page":"42","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":26,"title":["Security Awareness of the Digital Natives"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"8","author":[{"given":"Vasileios","family":"Gkioulos","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Information Security and Communication Technology, Norwegian University of Science &amp; Technology, 2802 Gj\u00f8vik, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3861-6746","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gaute","family":"Wangen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Information Security and Communication Technology, Norwegian University of Science &amp; Technology, 2802 Gj\u00f8vik, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sokratis","family":"Katsikas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Information Security and Communication Technology, Norwegian University of Science &amp; Technology, 2802 Gj\u00f8vik, Norway"},{"name":"Department of Digital Systems, University of Piraeus, 18532 Piraeus, Greece"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"George","family":"Kavallieratos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Digital Systems, University of Piraeus, 18532 Piraeus, Greece"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8771-9020","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Panayiotis","family":"Kotzanikolaou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Informatics, University of Piraeus, 18532 Piraeus, Greece"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,4,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Lella, A., and Lipsman, A. (2015, April 08). The US Mobile App Report. Available online: http:\/\/www.comscore.com\/Insights\/Presentationsand-Whitepapers\/2014\/The-US-Mobile-App-Report."},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"1","article-title":"Digital natives, digital immigrants part 1","volume":"9","author":"Prensky","year":"2001","journal-title":"On the Horizon"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"775","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-8535.2007.00793.x","article-title":"The \u2018digital natives\u2019 debate: A critical review of the evidence","volume":"39","author":"Bennett","year":"2008","journal-title":"Br. J. Educ. Technol."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chin, E., Felt, A.P., Sekar, V., and Wagner, D. (2012, January 11\u201313). Measuring user confidence in smartphone security and privacy. Proceedings of the Eighth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security, Washington, DC, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/2335356.2335358"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Felt, A.P., Ha, E., Egelman, S., Haney, A., Chin, E., and Wagner, D. (2012, January 11\u201313). Android permissions: User attention, comprehension, and behavior. Proceedings of the Eighth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security, Washington, DC, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/2335356.2335360"},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Kelley, P.G., Consolvo, S., Cranor, L.F., Jung, J., Sadeh, N., and Wetherall, D. (March, January 27). A conundrum of permissions: Installing applications on an android smartphone. Proceedings of the International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, Kralendijk, Bonaire."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mylonas, A., Gritzalis, D., Tsoumas, B., and Apostolopoulos, T. (2013, January 28\u201329). A qualitative metrics vector for the awareness of smartphone security users. Proceedings of the International Conference on Trust, Privacy and Security in Digital Business, Prague, Czech Republic.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-40343-9_15"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"47","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cose.2012.11.004","article-title":"Delegate the smartphone user? Security awareness in smartphone platforms","volume":"34","author":"Mylonas","year":"2013","journal-title":"Comput. Secur."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ophoff, J., and Robinson, M. (2014, January 13\u201314). Exploring end-user smartphone security awareness within a South African context. Proceedings of the 2014 Information Security for South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa.","DOI":"10.1109\/ISSA.2014.6950500"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Parker, F., Ophoff, J., Van Belle, J.P., and Karia, R. (2015, January 15\u201317). Security awareness and adoption of security controls by smartphone users. Proceedings of the 2015 Second International Conference on Information Security and Cyber Forensics (InfoSec), Cape Town, South Africa.","DOI":"10.1109\/InfoSec.2015.7435513"},{"key":"ref_11","first-page":"84","article-title":"Safe use of mobile devices arises from knowing the threats","volume":"20","author":"Markelj","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Inf. Secur. Appl."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"513","DOI":"10.1016\/j.clsr.2016.01.006","article-title":"Comprehension of cyber threats and their consequences in Slovenia","volume":"32","author":"Markelj","year":"2016","journal-title":"Comput. Law Secur. Rev."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"66","DOI":"10.1504\/IJMLO.2015.069718","article-title":"Dimension of mobile security model: Mobile user security threats and awareness","volume":"9","author":"Sheila","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. J. Mob. Learn. Organ."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Ariu, D., Bosco, F., Ferraris, V., Perri, P., Spolti, G., Stirparo, P., Vaciago, G., and Zanero, S. (2016, October 13). Security of the Digital Natives. Available online: https:\/\/ssrn.com\/abstract=2442037."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"625","DOI":"10.1007\/s10459-010-9222-y","article-title":"Likert scales, levels of measurement and the \u201claws\u201d of statistics","volume":"15","author":"Norman","year":"2010","journal-title":"Adv. Health Sci. Educ."}],"container-title":["Information"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/8\/2\/42\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T18:32:15Z","timestamp":1760207535000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/8\/2\/42"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2017,4,8]]},"references-count":15,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,6]]}},"alternative-id":["info8020042"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/info8020042","relation":{},"ISSN":["2078-2489"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2078-2489","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2017,4,8]]}}}