Doha Declaration

Education for Justice

Transforming the ’weakest link’ — a human/computer interaction approach to usable and effective security

Full title in original language:

Transforming the ’weakest link’ — a human/computer interaction approach to usable and effective security

Education level:

University

University (18+ years)

Topic / subtopic:

Cybercrime

Cybercrime prevention

Target audience:

Students, Teachers / Lecturers

Type of resource:

Publication / Article

Languages:

English

Region of relevance:

Global

Access:

restricted access: requiring payment

Individual authors:

M. Angela Sasse, Sacha Brostoff, D. Weirich

Publication year:

2001

Published by:

BT Technology Journal

Copyright holder:

Contact name and address:

Springer Nature Switzerland

Contact website:

https://support.springer.com/support/home

Key themes:

Links:

Publication

Short description:

The security research community has recently recognised that user behaviour plays a part in many security failures, and it has become common to refer to users as the ‘weakest link in the security chain’. The authors argue that simply blaming users will not lead to more effective security systems. Security designers must identify the causes of undesirable user behaviour, and address these to design effective security systems. They present examples of how undesirable user behaviour with passwords can be caused by failure to recognise the characteristics of human memory, unattainable or conflicting task demands, and lack of support, training and motivation. They conclude that existing human/computer interaction knowledge and techniques can be used to prevent or address these problems, and outline a vision of a holistic design approach for usable and effective security.

Short description:

The security research community has recently recognised that user behaviour plays a part in many security failures, and it has become common to refer to users as the ‘weakest link in the security chain’. The authors argue that simply blaming users will not lead to more effective security systems. Security designers must identify the causes of undesirable user behaviour, and address these to design effective security systems. They present examples of how undesirable user behaviour with passwords can be caused by failure to recognise the characteristics of human memory, unattainable or conflicting task demands, and lack of support, training and motivation. They conclude that existing human/computer interaction knowledge and techniques can be used to prevent or address these problems, and outline a vision of a holistic design approach for usable and effective security.

Doha Declaration

Education for Justice

Supported by the State of Qatar

60 years Crime Congress