An official website of the United States government
Users continue to authenticate on a wide range of devices. Logging into such devices is often complex due to factors related to the variety of devices used and because of passwords. While passwords can present a challenge for users—especially in creating secure passwords—password managers can help users generate and store passwords. However, research has shown that users avoid generating passwords, often giving the rationale that it is difficult to enter generated passwords on devices without a password manager. In this paper, we conduct a survey (n = 999) of individuals from the US, UK, and Europe, exploring the range of devices on which they enter passwords and the challenges associated with password entry on those devices. We find that password entry on devices without password managers is a common occurrence and comes with significant usability challenges that often lead users to weaken their passwords to increase the ease of entry. We conclude this paper by discussing how future research could address these challenges and encourage users to adopt generated passwords.
more »
« less
“In Eighty Percent of the Cases, I Select the Password for Them”: Security and Privacy Challenges, Advice, and Opportunities at Cybercafes in Kenya
Cybercafes remain a popular way to access the Internet in the developing world as many users still lack access to personal computers. Coupled with the recent digitization of government services, e.g. in Kenya, many users have turned to cybercafes to access essential services. Many of these users may have never used a computer, and face significant security and privacy issues at cybercafes. Yet, these challenges as well as the advice offered remain largely unexplored. We investigate these challenges along with the security advice and support provided by the operators at cybercafes in Kenya through n = 36 semi-structured interviews (n = 14 with cybercafe managers and n = 22 with customers). We find that cybercafes serve a crucial role in Kenya by enabling access to printing and government services. However, most customers face challenges with computer usage as well as security and usability challenges with account creation and password management. As a workaround, customers often rely on the support and advice of cybercafe managers who mostly direct them to use passwords that are memorable, e.g. simply using their national ID numbers or names. Some managers directly manage passwords for their customers, with one even using the same password for all their customers. These results suggest the need for more awareness about phone-based password managers, as well as a need for computer training and security awareness among these users. There is also a need to explore security and privacy advice beyond Western peripheries to support broader populations
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1845300
- PAR ID:
- 10417661
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 2023 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
null (Ed.)In the ever-changing world of computer security and user authentication, the username/password standard is becoming increasingly outdated. Using the same username and password across multiple accounts and websites leaves a user open to vulnerabilities, and the need to remember multiple usernames and passwords feels very unnecessary in the current digital age. Authentication methods of the future need to be reliable and fast, while maintaining the ability to provide secure access. Augmenting traditional username-password standard with face biometric is proposed in the literature to enhance the user authentication. However, this technique still needs an extensive evaluation study to show how reliable and effective it will be under different settings. Local Binary Pattern (LBP) is a discrete yet powerful texture classification scheme, which works particularly well with image classification for facial recognition. The system proposed here strives to examine and test various LBP configurations to determine their image classification accuracy. The most favorable configurations of LBP should be examined as a potential way to augment the current username and password standard by increasing their security with facial biometrics.more » « less
-
Users struggle to select strong passwords. System-assigned passwords address this problem, but they can be difficult for users to memorize. While password managers can help store system-assigned passwords, there will always be passwords that a user needs to memorize, such as their password manager’s master password. As such, there is a critical need for research into helping users memorize system-assigned passwords. In this work, we compare three different designs for password memorization aids inspired by the method of loci or memory palace. Design One displays a two-dimensional scene with objects placed inside it in arbitrary (and randomized) positions, with Design Two fixing the objects’ position within the scene, and Design Three displays the scene using a navigable, three-dimensional representation. In an A-B study of these designs, we find that, surprisingly, there is no statistically significant difference between the memorability of these three designs, nor that of assigning users a passphrase to memorize, which we used as the control in this study. However, we find that when perfect recall failed, our designs helped users remember a greater portion of the encoded system-assigned password than did a passphrase, a property we refer to as durability. Our results indicate that there could be room for memorization aids that incorporate fuzzy or error-correcting authentication. Similarly, our results suggest that simple (i.e., cheap to develop) designs of this nature may be just as effective as more complicated, high-fidelity (i.e., expensive to develop) designs.more » « less
-
Schmorrow, D.D.; Fidopiastis, C.M. (Ed.)Perceptions of security and privacy influence users’ behavior with security mechanisms such as passwords and multifactor authentication. Users tend to practice insecure behaviors based on their perception of security and convenience. This paper highlights the alignment between privacy and security perceptions and the possibilities for augmented cognition in HCI and instructional de-sign to improve security-related behaviors for access control.more » « less
-
City-wide free WiFi is one of the most common initiatives of smart city infrastructures. While city-wide free WiFi services are not subject to privacy-focused regulations and appeal to a broader demographic, how users perceive privacy in such services is unknown. This study explores perspectives of users in the United States regarding the privacy practices of such services as well as their expectations. We conducted surveys with 199 participants of US, consisting of those who had used such services (i.e., experienced users, n=99) and those who had not (i.e., potential users, n=100), assessing their satisfaction with the services, perceptions regarding data privacy practices of city-wide free WiFi services, and general expectations of privacy. We identify 14 key findings by analyzing the responses from participants. We found that participants are aware of the data collection and data sharing by the WiFi services and are uncomfortable with both but are still inclined to use the services as the need for WiFi outweighs privacy, as well as because of the significant trust they place in the services due to their non-profit and government-run nature. Our analysis provides actionable takeaways for researchers and practitioners, arguing for long-term privacy gains through a regulatory approach that treats city-wide WiFi as a utility, given the trust consumers place in it, and the overall tendency of consumers to trade-off privacy for WiFi access in this context.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- The DOI is not currently available.
