Studies
5 studies · CSV
- Tuning Out Security Warnings: A Longitudinal Examination of Habituation Through fMRI, Eye Tracking, and Field Experiments Vance et al. (2018). MIS Quarterly, 42(2), 355-380 Attention to repeated security warnings declined measurably in the brain across a workweek, partially recovering between days. In the field, adherence to permission warnings fell over three weeks, while warnings whose appearance varied (polymorphic designs) substantially reduced this habituation.
- Security Fatigue Stanton et al. (2016). IT Professional, 18(5) Although the interviews never asked about fatigue, over half of the 40 participants described it: resignation, loss of control, fatalism, risk minimization and decision avoidance. This fatigue fed their sense that following security advice has little benefit.
- Learning from “Shadow Security:” Why Understanding Non-Compliant Behaviors Provides the Basis for Effective Security Kirlappos et al. (2014). Workshop on Usable Security (USEC 2014) Beyond comply/not-comply, security-conscious employees who cannot follow policy build their own workarounds ('shadow security') that balance getting work done with managing risk. The authors recommend learning from these practices rather than stamping them out.
- So long, and no thanks for the externalities: the rational rejection of security advice by users Herley (2009). Proceedings of the 2009 New Security Paradigms Workshop (NSPW '09) Argues that users ignoring security advice is economically rational: advice imposes large, constant effort costs while its benefits are often speculative. For example, the time cost of everyone checking URLs would dwarf all phishing losses.
- Users are not the enemy Adams & Sasse (1999). Communications of the ACM, 42(12) Insecure password practices (e.g., writing passwords down, linking passwords) stemmed from memory overload and poorly designed policies, not user carelessness. Security departments that withheld information and treated users as a threat worsened motivation and compliance.