DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING TTAT-MIP FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF MALWARE THREATS THROUGH ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS

Online social networks (OSNs) have transformed the manner social relationships are formed; as it includes digital functionalities to assist users to connect with friends and family as well as conduct their businesses. There has also been a rapid increase in the success of malware attacks targeting users of OSNs. Through social engineering, attackers continue to exploit the trust factor inherent amongst users to lure them into downloading malware on their computer device. In this paper, we examine the Technology Threat Avoidance Theory (TTAT) for the avoidance of malware threats. Potential drawbacks of TTAT were identified and discussed. We present evidence based on the literature for extending the Technology Threat Avoidance Theory to include a new construct – Mass Interpersonal Persuasion (MIP) - (TTAT-MIP) for users of online social networks. A novel Facebook animation video APP is also proposed as a tool to make social network users aware about the nature and dynamics of malware threats. Our work attempts to make a contribution to theory and practice by describing the relationship between the extended version of TTAT (TTAT-MIP) and the architecture of the proposed Facebook animation video App.