Spyware: an Exploration of Incidence and Student Perception

Spyware has been identified as one of the emerging and growing threats to organizations. Because the Internet is an essential component of the student’s education experience, it is important to discern if our students are at risk and how to mitigate potential negative consequences. As a result, this paper describes spyware issues and empirically explores spyware incidence and student attitude. Findings suggest that undergraduates spend a considerable amount of time in activities that could result in spyware being installed on his/her computer. Moreover, results demonstrate that spyware incidence is prevalent, with an average of 141 spyware files found per student. An examination of student attitude also indicates that although 70% of students were either moderately or highly concerned about the existence of spyware on his/her computer, 25% indicated that he/she would not modify his/her behavior while 58% indicated only mild to moderate modification.