Usable Security

Human factors and usability issues have traditionally played a limited role in security research and secure systems development. Security experts have largely ignored usability issues--both because they often failed to recognize the importance of human factors and because they lacked the expertise to address them. But there is a growing recognition that today's security problems can be solved only by addressing issues of usability and human factors. Increasingly, well-publicized security breaches are attributed to human errors that might have been prevented through more usable software. Indeed, the world's future cyber-security depends upon the deployment of security technology that can be broadly used by untrained computer users. Still, many people believe there is an inherent tradeoff between computer security and usability. It's true that a computer without passwords is usable, but not very secure. A computer that makes you authenticate every five minutes with a password and a fresh drop of blood might be very secure, but nobody would use it. Clearly, people need computers, and if they can't use one that's secure, they'll use one that isn't. Unfortunately, unsecured systems aren't usable for long, either. They get hacked, compromised, and otherwise rendered useless. There is increasing agreement that we need to design secure systems that people can actually use, but less agreement about how to reach this goal. Security & Usability is the first book-length work describing the current state of the art in this emerging field. Edited by security experts Dr. Lorrie Faith Cranor and Dr. Simson Garfinkel, and authored by cutting-edge security and human-computerinteraction (HCI) researchers world-wide, this volume is expected to become both a classic reference and an inspiration for future research. Security & Usability groups 34 essays into six parts: Realigning Usability and Security---with careful attention to user-centered design principles, security and usability can be synergistic. Authentication Mechanisms-- techniques for identifying and authenticating computer users. Secure Systems--how system software can deliver or destroy a secure user experience. Privacy and Anonymity Systems--methods for allowing people to control the release of personal information. Commercializing Usability: The Vendor Perspective--specific experiences of security and software vendors (e.g.,IBM, Microsoft, Lotus, Firefox, and Zone Labs) in addressing usability. The Classics--groundbreaking papers that sparked the field of security and usability. This book is expected to start an avalanche of discussion, new ideas, and further advances in this important field.

There has been roughly 15 years of research into approaches for aligning research in Human Computer Interaction with computer Security, more colloquially known as ``usable security.'' Although usability and security were once thought to be inherently antagonistic, today there is wide consensus that systems that are not usable will inevitably suffer security failures when they are deployed into the real world. Only by simultaneously addressing both usability and security concerns will we be able to build systems that are truly secure. This book presents the historical context of the work to date on usable security and privacy, creates a taxonomy for organizing that work, outlines current research objectives, presents lessons learned, and makes suggestions for future research.

There is an intrinsic conflict between creating secure systems and usable systems. But usability and security can be made synergistic by providing requirements and design tools with specific usable security principles earlier in the requirements and design phase. In certain situations, it is possible to increase usability and security by revisiting design decisions made in the past; in others, to align security and usability by changing the regulatory environment in which the computers operate. This book addresses creation of a usable security protocol for user authentication as a natural outcome of the requirements and design phase of the authentication method development life cycle.

Despite many advances, security and privacy often remain too complex for individuals or enterprises to manage effectively or to use conveniently. Security is hard for users, administrators, and developers to understand, making it all too easy to use, configure, or operate systems in ways that are inadvertently insecure. Moreover, security and privacy technologies originally were developed in a context in which system administrators had primary responsibility for security and privacy protections and in which the users tended to be sophisticated. Today, the user base is much wider-including the vast majority of employees in many organizations and a large fraction of households-but the basic models for security and privacy are essentially unchanged. Security features can be clumsy and awkward to use and can present significant obstacles to getting work done. As a result, cybersecurity measures are all too often disabled or bypassed by the users they are intended to protect. Similarly, when security gets in the way of functionality, designers and administrators deemphasize it. The result is that end users often engage in actions, knowingly or unknowingly, that compromise the security of computer systems or contribute to the unwanted release of personal or other confidential information. Toward Better Usability, Security, and Privacy of Information Technology discusses computer system security and privacy, their relationship to usability, and research at their intersection.

There has been roughly 15 years of research into approaches for aligning research in Human Computer Interaction with computer Security, more colloquially known as ``usable security.'' Although usability and security were once thought to be inherently antagonistic, today there is wide consensus that systems that are not usable will inevitably suffer security failures when they are deployed into the real world. Only by simultaneously addressing both usability and security concerns will we be able to build systems that are truly secure. This book presents the historical context of the work to date on usable security and privacy, creates a taxonomy for organizing that work, outlines current research objectives, presents lessons learned, and makes suggestions for future research.

Everyone expects the products and services they use to be secure, but 'building security in' at the earliest stages of a system's design also means designing for use as well. Software that is unusable to end-users and unwieldy to developers and administrators may be insecure as errors and violations may expose exploitable vulnerabilities. This book shows how practitioners and researchers can build both security and usability into the design of systems. It introduces the IRIS framework and the open source CAIRIS platform that can guide the specification of secure and usable software. It also illustrates how IRIS and CAIRIS can complement techniques from User Experience, Security Engineering and Innovation & Entrepreneurship in ways that allow security to be addressed at different stages of the software lifecycle without disruption. Real-world examples are provided of the techniques and processes illustrated in this book, making this text a resource for practitioners, researchers, educators, and students.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the Third International Conference on Human Aspects of Information Security, Privacy, and Trust, HAS 2015, held as part of the 17th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2015, held in Los Angeles, CA, USA, in August 2015 and received a total of 4843 submissions, of which 1462 papers and 246 posters were accepted for publication after a careful reviewing process. These papers address the latest research and development efforts and highlight the human aspects of design and use of computing systems. The papers thoroughly cover the entire field of Human-Computer Interaction, addressing major advances in knowledge and effective use of computers in a variety of application areas. The 62 papers presented in the HAS 2015 proceedings are organized in topical sections as follows: authentication, cybersecurity, privacy, security, and user behavior, security in social media and smart technologies, and security technologies.