Usable security

Last updated

Usable security is a subfield of computer science, human-computer interaction, and cybersecurity concerned with the user interface design of cybersecurity systems. [1] In particular, usable security focuses on ensuring that the security implications of interacting with computer systems, such as via alert dialog boxes, are accessible and understandable to human users. This differs from the software engineering method of secure by design in that it emphasizes human aspects of cybersecurity rather than the technical. Usable security also sits opposite the idea of security through obscurity by working to ensure that users are aware of the security implications of their decisions. [2] [3]

Contents

History

Usable security was first established by Computer Scientists Jerry Saltzer and Michael Schroeder in their 1975 work The Protection of Information in Computer Systems [4] , now colloquially referred to as Saltzer and Schroeder's design principles. The principles draw attention to 'psychological acceptability', stating that the design of an interface should match the user's mental model of the system. The authors note that security errors are likely to occur when the user's mental model and underlying system operation do not match.

Despite Saltzer and Schroeder's work, the widely-held view was, and continued to be, that security and usability were inherently in conflict; being either that security through obscurity was a preferable approach, or that user discomfort and confusion was just a requirement to ensuring good security. [5] One such example is that of user login systems. When the user enters incorrect login details, the system must reply that the username and/or login is incorrect without clarifying which contains the incorrect value. By stating which of the inputs is incorrect (either the username or password), this could be used by an attacker to determine valid users on a system who could then be targeted by password-guessing attacks or similar exploitation. [6] While this may cause some annoyance to the user, the approach does offer a heightened level of security.

It wouldn't be until 1995 with the publication of "User-Centered Security" [7] by Mary Ellen Zurko and Richard T. Simon, that what is now called usable security would become a distinct field of research and design. This shift largely stems from placing greater focus on usability testing, and ensuring that security aspects are understandable during the design and development process, rather than being added as an afterthought.

Scientific conferences

While research on usable security is widely accepted by many HCI and Cyber Security conferences, dedicated venues for such work include:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computer security</span> Protection of computer systems from information disclosure, theft or damage

Computer security is the protection of computer software, systems and networks from threats that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, theft of hardware, software, or data, as well as from the disruption or misdirection of the services they provide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multics</span> Time-sharing operating system

Multics is an influential early time-sharing operating system based on the concept of a single-level memory. Nathan Gregory writes that Multics "has influenced all modern operating systems since, from microcomputers to mainframes."

Jerome Howard "Jerry" Saltzer is an American computer scientist.

A federated identity in information technology is the means of linking a person's electronic identity and attributes, stored across multiple distinct identity management systems.

Information security standards are techniques generally outlined in published materials that attempt to protect the cyber environment of a user or organization. This environment includes users themselves, networks, devices, all software, processes, information in storage or transit, applications, services, and systems that can be connected directly or indirectly to networks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Systems architecture</span> Conceptual model of a system

A system architecture is the conceptual model that defines the structure, behavior, and more views of a system. An architecture description is a formal description and representation of a system, organized in a way that supports reasoning about the structures and behaviors of the system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hardware security module</span> Physical computing device

A hardware security module (HSM) is a physical computing device that safeguards and manages secrets, performs encryption and decryption functions for digital signatures, strong authentication and other cryptographic functions. These modules traditionally come in the form of a plug-in card or an external device that attaches directly to a computer or network server. A hardware security module contains one or more secure cryptoprocessor chips.

SecPAL is a declarative, logic-based, security policy language that has been developed to support the complex access control requirements of large scale distributed computing environments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyberethics</span> Ethics of online activities

Cyberethics is "a branch of ethics concerned with behavior in an online environment". In another definition, it is the "exploration of the entire range of ethical and moral issues that arise in cyberspace" while cyberspace is understood to be "the electronic worlds made visible by the Internet." For years, various governments have enacted regulations while organizations have defined policies about cyberethics.

The EINSTEIN System is a network intrusion detection and prevention system that monitors the networks of US federal government departments and agencies. The system is developed and managed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Security information and event management (SIEM) is a field within the field of computer security, where software products and services combine security information management (SIM) and security event management (SEM). SIEM is typically the core component of any security operations center (SOC), which is the centralized response team addressing security issues within an organization.

In information security, computer science, and other fields, the principle of least privilege (PoLP), also known as the principle of minimal privilege (PoMP) or the principle of least authority (PoLA), requires that in a particular abstraction layer of a computing environment, every module must be able to access only the information and resources that are necessary for its legitimate purpose.

In authentication, risk-based authentication is a non-static authentication system which takes into account the profile of the agent requesting access to the system to determine the risk profile associated with that transaction. The risk profile is then used to determine the complexity of the challenge. Higher risk profiles leads to stronger challenges, whereas a static username/password may suffice for lower-risk profiles. Risk-based implementation allows the application to challenge the user for additional credentials only when the risk level is appropriate.

Machine authentication is often used in a risk based authentication set up. The machine authentication will run in the background and only ask the customer for additional authentication if the computer is not recognized. In a risk based authentication system, the institution decides if additional authentication is necessary. If the risk is deemed appropriate, enhanced authentication will be triggered, such as a one time password delivered via an out of band communication. Risk based authentication can also be used during the session to prompt for additional authentication when the customer performs a certain high risk transaction, such as a money transfer or an address change. Risk based authentication is very beneficial to the customer because additional steps are only required if something is out of the ordinary, such as the login attempt is from a new machine.

A downgrade attack, also called a bidding-down attack, or version rollback attack, is a form of cryptographic attack on a computer system or communications protocol that makes it abandon a high-quality mode of operation in favor of an older, lower-quality mode of operation that is typically provided for backward compatibility with older systems. An example of such a flaw was found in OpenSSL that allowed the attacker to negotiate the use of a lower version of TLS between the client and server. This is one of the most common types of downgrade attacks. Opportunistic encryption protocols such as STARTTLS are generally vulnerable to downgrade attacks, as they, by design, fall back to unencrypted communication. Websites which rely on redirects from unencrypted HTTP to encrypted HTTPS can also be vulnerable to downgrade attacks, as the initial redirect is not protected by encryption.

Privacy engineering is an emerging field of engineering which aims to provide methodologies, tools, and techniques to ensure systems provide acceptable levels of privacy. Its focus lies in organizing and assessing methods to identify and tackle privacy concerns within the engineering of information systems.

Saltzer and Schroeder's design principles are design principles enumerated by Jerome Saltzer and Michael Schroeder in their 1975 article The Protection of Information in Computer Systems, that from their experience are important for the design of secure software systems.

This is a list of cybersecurity information technology. Cybersecurity is security as it is applied to information technology. This includes all technology that stores, manipulates, or moves data, such as computers, data networks, and all devices connected to or included in networks, such as routers and switches. All information technology devices and facilities need to be secured against intrusion, unauthorized use, and vandalism. Additionally, the users of information technology should be protected from theft of assets, extortion, identity theft, loss of privacy and confidentiality of personal information, malicious mischief, damage to equipment, business process compromise, and the general activity of cybercriminals. The public should be protected against acts of cyberterrorism, such as the compromise or loss of the electric power grid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prabhat Mishra</span> American computer scientist

Prabhat Mishra is a Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the University of Florida. Prof. Mishra's research interests are in hardware security, quantum computing, embedded systems, system-on-chip validation, formal verification, and machine learning.

The Lincoln Adaptable Real-time Information Assurance Testbed (LARIAT) is a physical computing platform developed by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory as a testbed for network security applications. Use of the platform is restricted to the United States military, though some academic organizations can also use the platform under certain conditions.

Confidential computing is a security and privacy-enhancing computational technique focused on protecting data in use. Confidential computing can be used in conjunction with storage and network encryption, which protect data at rest and data in transit respectively. It is designed to address software, protocol, cryptographic, and basic physical and supply-chain attacks, although some critics have demonstrated architectural and side-channel attacks effective against the technology.

References

  1. ↑ Garfinkel, Simson; Lipford, Heather Richter (2014), "Introduction", Usable Security, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1–11, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-02343-9_1, ISBN   978-3-031-01215-0 , retrieved 2022-12-01
  2. ↑ Renaud, Karen; Volkamer, Melanie; Renkema-Padmos, Arne (2014), De Cristofaro, Emiliano; Murdoch, Steven J. (eds.), "Why Doesn't Jane Protect Her Privacy?", Privacy Enhancing Technologies, vol. 8555, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 244–262, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-08506-7_13, ISBN   978-3-319-08505-0, S2CID   9509269 , retrieved 2022-12-01
  3. ↑ Yee, Ka-Ping (2004). "Aligning security and usability". IEEE Security & Privacy. 2 (5): 48–55. doi:10.1109/MSP.2004.64. ISSN   1558-4046. S2CID   206485281.
  4. ↑ Smith, Richard (2012). "A Contemporary Look at Saltzer and Schroeder's 1975 Design Principles". IEEE Security & Privacy Magazine: 1. doi:10.1109/msp.2012.85. S2CID   13371996 . Retrieved 2023-12-28.
  5. ↑ Garfinkel, Simson; Lipford, Heather Richter (2014), "A Brief History of Usable Privacy and Security Research", Usable Security, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 13–21, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-02343-9_2, ISBN   978-3-031-01215-0 , retrieved 2023-12-28
  6. ↑ Nielsen, Jakob (1993). Usability engineering. Boston San Diego New York [etc.]: Academic press. ISBN   978-0-12-518405-2.
  7. ↑ Zurko, Mary Ellen; Simon, Richard T. (1996). "User-centered security". Proceedings of the 1996 workshop on New security paradigms - NSPW '96. ACM Press. pp. 27–33. doi:10.1145/304851.304859. ISBN   978-0-89791-944-9.
  8. ↑ "EUROUSEC Conference - Home". ACM Digital Library. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
  9. ↑ "International Conference on Human Aspects of Information Security, Privacy, and Trust". link.springer.com. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
  10. ↑ "IFIP World Conference on Information Security Education". link.springer.com. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
  11. ↑ "International Workshop on Socio-Technical Aspects in Security". link.springer.com. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
  12. ↑ "International Conference on Trust and Privacy in Digital Business". link.springer.com. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
  13. ↑ "SOUPS Symposia | USENIX". www.usenix.org. Retrieved 2023-12-28.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.