Abstract

Research in computer security has produce and array of tools that are essential to safe computing, including access control, firewalls and anti-virus systems. However attackers still gain access to protected networks regularly, partly because researchers have ignored the people who fill the networks and operate those tools. We are not always rational, may have a poor mental model of security and tend to see the tools as onerous, hindering us in our work, difficult to understand and oblivious to how our organization functions.
What can be done about this? Fieldwork can help us gain a better understanding of how people interact with security systems, somtimes defeating tools intended to protect them. Our experimental user interface learns the user's mental model of security and uses the knowledge to communicate risk and choices more effectively. Cognitive architectures can model human decisions about security …

Date

2014

Authors

Jim Blythe

Journal

Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges

Volume

29

Issue

4

Pages

111-111

Publisher

Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges