Big Five Personality Traits and Cybersecurity Behavior Compliance: A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Remote vs. In-House Worker Differences

Background: Remote working has revolutionized organizational cybersecurity paradigms with workers operating outside the physical security perimeter. While technology continues to evolve, the weakest link in cybersecurity systems continues to be the human factor. Personality differences among individuals can specifically predict cybersecurity compliance behavior in different workplaces; this area of convergence has not yet been explored from a theoretical perspective.Objective: The current paper introduces theory-based full-scale research investigating how the prediction of cybersecurity behavior compliance can be achieved through Big Five personality traits, specifically highlighting the search for differences between remote and in-house workers to determine environment-specific strengths and vulnerabilities.Theoretical Framework: We outline a comprehensive Person-Environment-Cybersecurity (PEC) model that synthesizes the theories of personality psychology and cybersecurity compliance theory. The model posits that personality will have differential relationships with cybersecurity behaviors with varying characteristics of the work environment, where conscientiousness assumes a more prominent role in remote work environments, neuroticism increases exposures in distributed work environments, and agreeableness enables compliance through social mechanisms that are more salient in traditional office environments.Implications: The present theoretical framework promises a basis for the creation of differentiated cybersecurity training strategies, security interventions based on personality, and evidence-based best practices for remote work security policies. The model has testable hypotheses, which can be pursued in future empirical research, and practical uses for organizations looking to maximize human factors in cybersecurity.Conclusions: Examining cybersecurity compliance in personality-environment interactions is an important theoretical advance towards addressing security concerns in more distributed work settings. The conceptual model encourages a paradigm shift from one-size-fits-all solutions to context-sensitive, customized security practice.Keywords: cybersecurity compliance, personality traits, remote work, Big Five, theoretical framework, human factors, organizational security