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Aims:

Students will be able to specify usability criteria that a security mechanism has to meet to be workable for end-user groups and work contexts. They will know the strengths and weaknesses of particular security mechanisms in practice, and hence be able to choose and configure mechanisms for best performance in a given organisational context. Students will be able to specify accompanying measures (policies, training, monitoring and ensuring compliance) that a user organisation needs to implement to ensure long-term security in practice.

Intended learning outcomes:

On successful completion of the module, a student will be able to:

1. Apply their knowledge of human factors and behavioural economics to specify and implement workable and effective security solutions and manage security behaviour.

Indicative content:

The following are indicative of the topics the module will typically cover:

Understanding Human Behaviour in Security:

• Systems thinking and design.
• Usability: Users, tasks and context.
• Performance and Workload.
• Productivity and performance vs risk and security.

Economics:

• Humans and Risk.
• Risk Biases and Decision-making.
• Friction and the Compliance Budget.

Authentication:

• Authentication tasks:
  • enrolment, verification, recovery.
• Knowledge-based authentication:
  • Passwords,
• phrases, PINs, graphical Authentication.
• Token-based authentication.
• Biometric authentication:
  • physical and behavioural.
• Continuous authentication via devices, sensors, and biometrics.
• Payment systems and transaction authentication.

Access control:

• Different access control models, organisational impact and user workload.
• Attacks and attackers (and how to counter them):
• Types of attacks (Guessing, observation, capture and coercion).
• Types of attackers: motivation, resources risk propensity.
• Social engineering attacks.
• Insider attacks.

Identity:

• Online identity vs identity in the physical world.
• National identity vs socially constructed systems.
• Digital footprints, shadows and super-identities.
• Identity as currency.

Privacy:

• Data protection and user perception.
• Delivering privacy: Privacy by Design, the PST model.
• Surveillance, dataveillance and sousveillance online and in the physical world (CCTV).

Trust:

• Model of trust in online interaction.
• Incentivising trustworthy behaviour.
• Reputation systems and their application in online systems.

Influencing user behaviour:

• Security awareness, education and training.
• User interface design and influencing techniques.
• Values, attitudes, security culture and security behaviour.
• Responsibility and communication.

Requisites:

To be eligible to select this module as optional or elective, a student must: (1) be registered on a programme and year of study for which it is a formally available; (2) have knowledge of basic information security principles; and (3) have good essay-writing skills.