Effect of External Safeguards on Human-Information System Thrust in an Information Warfare Environment

This research looks at how human trust in an information system is influenced by external safeguards in an Information Warfare (1W) domain. Information systems are relied upon in command and control environments to provide fast and reliable information to the decision-makers. The degree of reliance placed in these systems by the decision-makers suggests a significant level of trust. Understanding this trust relationship and what effects it is the focus of this study. A model is proposed that predicts behavior associated with human trust in information systems. It is hypothesized that a decision-maker's belief in the effectiveness of external safeguards will positively influence a decision-maker's trusting behavior. Likewise, the presence of an Information Warfare attack will have a negative effect on a decision-maker's trusting behavior. Two experiments were conducted in which the perceived effectiveness of external safeguards and the information provided by an information system were manipulated in order to test the hypotheses presented in this study. The findings from both experiments suggest that a person's trust in computers in specific situations are useful in predicting trusting behavior, external safeguards have a negative effect on trusting behavior, and that Information Warfare attacks have no effect on trusting behavior.Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH School of Engineering and Management is the author of 'Effect of External Safeguards on Human-Information System Thrust in an Information Warfare Environment', published 2001 under ISBN 9781423527121 and ISBN 1423527127.