Target Suitability as a Determinant of Online Identity Theft: Case of University Students in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan

Authors

  • Asghar Ullah Khan Department of Communication and Media Studies, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, KPK, Pakistan
  • Muhammad Imran Khan Department of Communication and Media Studies, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, KPK, Pakistan
  • Shakila Yaqoob Working Folks Grammar Higher Secondary School, Worker Welfare Board, KPK, Pakistan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56976/rjsi.v1i1.16

Keywords:

Online Identity Theft, Target Suitability, Routine Activity Theory

Abstract

This research study aimed to measure the relationship of online target suitability with the chances of online identity theft (OIT) that faced by the universities students of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The concept of target suitability was adopted from Routine Activity Theory (RAT). A descriptive survey research approach was adopted in this study. Universities going students of KP formed the population of this study. 800 students were selected from the 6 universities of KP. The data was analyzed using multiple regression techniques. The results reveal that the target suitability in online activities of the young adults increases the likelihood of OIT.

References

Bossler, A. M., Holt, T. J., & May, D. C. (2012). Predicting online harassment victimization among a juvenile population. Youth & Society, 44(4), 500-523.

Choe, J. (2018). A Lifestyle-Routine Activity Theory (LRAT) Approach to Cybercrime Victimization: Empirical Assessment of SNS Lifestyle Exposure Activities. 4(2), 200-215.

Choi, K.-s. (2008). Computer crime victimization and integrated theory: An empirical assessment. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 2(1), 308.

Clarke, R. V. G., & Webb, B. (1999). Hot products: Understanding, anticipating and reducing demand for stolen goods (Vol. 112): Citeseer.

Cohen, L. E., & Felson, M. (1979). Social change and crime rate trends: A routine activity approach. American Sociological Review, 588-608.

Debatin, B., Lovejoy, J. P., Horn, A.-K., & Hughes, B. N. (2009). Facebook and online privacy: Attitudes, behaviors, and unintended consequences. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 15(1), 83-108.

Dredge, R., Gleeson, J., & De la Piedad Garcia, X. (2014). Presentation on Facebook and risk of cyberbullying victimisation. Computers in human behavior, 40, 16-22.

Dreßing, H., Bailer, J., Anders, A., Wagner, H., & Gallas, C. (2014). Cyberstalking in a large sample of social network users: Prevalence, characteristics, and impact upon victims. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17(2), 61-67.

Fire, M., Goldschmidt, R., & Elovici, Y. (2014). Online social networks: threats and solutions. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 16(4), 2019-2036.

Gross, R., & Acquisti, A. (2005). Information revelation and privacy in online social networks. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 2005 ACM workshop on Privacy in the electronic society.

Hafeez, E. (2014). Cyber Harassment and Its Implications on Youth in Pakistan. New Horizons, 8(2), 29.

Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2008). Personal information of adolescents on the Internet: A quantitative content analysis of MySpace. Journal of adolescence, 31(1), 125-146.

Holt, T. J., & Bossler, A. M. (2009). Examining the applicability of lifestyle-routine activities theory for cybercrime victimization. Deviant behavior.

Justice, D. o. (2018). Idenitity theft. Retrieved June 21, 2018, from https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/identity-theft/identity-theft-and-identity-fraud

Kamruzzaman, M. (2015). Dowry related Violence against Rural Women in Bangladesh. Age (years), 15(4), 3.7.

Kamruzzaman, M., Islam, M. A., Islam, M. S., Hossain, M. S., & Hakim, M. A. (2016). Plight of youth perception on cyber crime in South Asia. American Journal of Information Science and Computer Engineering, 2(4), 22-28.

Kokkinos, C. M., & Saripanidis, I. (2017). A lifestyle exposure perspective of victimization through Facebook among university students. Do individual differences matter? Computers in human behavior, 74, 235-245.

Mahmood, M. T., Farooq, M. M., Anwar, M. M., Ali, M. H., Ahmad, M. T., Khan, M. S., . . . Aftab, M. H. (2017). Development Statistics of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Retrieved October 26, 2017, from http://www.pndkp.gov.pk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/development statistics of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-2017.pdf

Marcum, C. D., Higgins, G. E., & Ricketts, M. L. (2010). Potential factors of online victimization of youth: An examination of adolescent online behaviors utilizing routine activity theory. Deviant behavior, 31(5), 381-410.

Messner, S. F., Lu, Z., Zhang, L., & Liu, J. (2007). Risks of criminal victimization in contemporary urban China: An application of lifestyle/routine activities theory. Justice Quarterly, 24(3), 496-522.

Peluchette, J. V., Karl, K., Wood, C., & Williams, J. (2015). Cyberbullying victimization: Do victims’ personality and risky social network behaviors contribute to the problem? Computers in Human Behavior, 52, 424-435.

Pires, S., & Clarke, R. V. (2012). Are parrots CRAVED? An analysis of parrot poaching in Mexico. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 49(1), 122-146.

Rafique, G. M. (2017). Personal Information Sharing Behavior of University Students via Online Social Networks. Library Philosophy & Practice.

Reyns, B. W. (2015). A routine activity perspective on online victimisation: Results from the Canadian General Social Survey. Journal of Financial Crime, 22(4), 396-411.

Reyns, B. W., & Henson, B. (2016). The thief with a thousand faces and the victim with none: Identifying determinants for online identity theft victimization with routine activity theory. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 60(10), 1119-1139.

Shin, D.-H. (2010). The effects of trust, security and privacy in social networking: A security-based approach to understand the pattern of adoption. Interacting with computers, 22(5), 428-438.

Sowmya, P., & Chatterjee, M. (2018). Comparative study of threats and solutions in online social networks. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science, 9(1), 760-764.

Srivastava, A., & Yadav, S. (2014). Cyber Stalking: A Nuisance to the Information Technology. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science, 5(8).

Staksrud, E., Ólafsson, K., & Livingstone, S. (2013). Does the use of social networking sites increase children’s risk of harm? Computers in Human Behavior, 29(1), 40-50.

Subrahmanyam, K., & Greenfield, P. (2008). Online communication and adolescent relationships. The future of children, 119-146.

Thomas, J.E. (2018). Individual cyber security: Empowering employees to resist spear phishing to prevent identity theft and ransomware attacks. International Journal of Business Management, 12(3), 1-23.

Tuunainen, V. K., Pitkänen, O., & Hovi, M. (2009). Users' awareness of privacy on online social networking sites-case Facebook. Bled 2009 Proceedings, 42.

Wilsem, J. v. (2013). Hacking and harassment—Do they have something in common? Comparing risk factors for online victimization. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 29(4), 437-453.

Downloads

Published

2019-12-31

How to Cite

Khan, A. U. ., Khan, M. I. ., & Yaqoob, S. . (2019). Target Suitability as a Determinant of Online Identity Theft: Case of University Students in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. Research Journal for Societal Issues, 1(1), 23–32. https://doi.org/10.56976/rjsi.v1i1.16

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2019): RJSI

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2019 Research Journal for Societal Issues

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.