Influence of user perception, security needs, and social factors on device pairing method choices

Abstract

Recent years have seen a proliferation of secure device pairing methods that try to improve both the usability and security of today's de-facto standard -PIN-based authentication. Evaluating such improvements is difficult. Most comparative laboratory studies have so far mainly focused on completeness, trying to find the single best method among the dozens of proposed approaches -one that is both rated the most usable by test subjects, and which provides the most robust security guarantees. This search for the "best" pairing method, however, fails to take into account the variety of situations in which such pairing protocols may be used in real life. The comparative study reported here, therefore, explicitly situates pairing tasks in a number of more realistic situations. Our results indicate that people do not always use the easiest or most popular method -they instead prefer different methods in different situations, based on the sensitivity of data involved, their time constraints, and the social conventions appropriate for a particular place and setting. Our study also provides qualitative data on factors influencing the perceived security of a particular method, the users' mental models surrounding security of a method, and their security needs. General TermsHuman Factors, Security.

Wireless device connection problems and design solutions

“…Among five prominent categories of actions (i.e., button event, search and select, device touch, proximity, and gesture), no single action dominated for natural interaction. Similarly, ION, et al [18] , reported that a technically secure and easy-to-use method does not always benefit the user. They asserted that the preferred actions for device connection depended on the user and situation.…”

“…Their work helped designers and researchers understand the complexity of the problem. ION et al [18] , found that user interaction is influenced by the time constraints of the user, the sensitivity of the data involved, and social conventions that are appropriate for a given environment. They argued that designers need to be aware of the users' mental model, needs and social situations.…”

Gesture Input as an Out-of-band Channel

“…Interesting studies have recently been reported by Chong et al [12] and Ion et al [13]. The major findings of these papers reveal that there is no dominant device-pairing method in real life.…”

A Comparative Study to Evaluate the Usability of Context-Based Wi-Fi Access Mechanisms

“…Ion et al [7] used mock-ups to investigate the usability of device pairing methods with regard to perceived security needs in di erent real-life situation.…”