Stopping spyware at the gate

Abstract

Spyware is a significant problem for most computer users. The term "spyware" loosely describes a new class of computer software. This type of software may track user activities online and offline, provide targeted advertising and/or engage in other types of activities that users describe as invasive or undesirable.While the magnitude of the spyware problem is well documented , recent studies have had only limited success in explaining the broad range of user behaviors that contribute to the proliferation of spyware. As opposed to viruses and other malicious code, users themselves often have a choice whether they want to install these programs.In this paper, we discuss an ecological study of users installing five real world applications. In particular, we seek to understand the influence of the form and content of notices (e.g., EULAs) on user's installation decisions.

TLS/PKI Challenges and Certificate Pinning Techniques for IoT and M2M Secure Communications

“…The major concern about using malformed or untrusted certificates when users are involved is that browsers allow users to continue the interaction even if the certificate cannot be validated. This behaviour is known as "click(ing) through" security [77]. The literature concludes that the majority of average users do not understand the warnings shown by browsers upon a handshake with a defective certificate and decide to access the service [78] since PKI is complex and hard to understand.…”

Designing Evidence‐based Disclosures: A Case Study of Financial Privacy Notices

“…Furthermore, consumers spend only about one‐fifth of the estimated required reading time when they do read notices (Grossklags and Good 2007; Kay and Terry 2009). Shorter summaries of information or layered notices get mixed results (Good et al 2005; McDonald et al 2009; Proctor, Ali, and Vu 2008). Standardization may help consumers transfer learning and make comparisons (McDonald et al 2009); research on a standardized privacy “label” showed improvements in consumers finding and understanding information and easily comparing policies (Kelley et al 2009a, 2009b).…”

A Privacy Assessment Approach for Serviced Oriented Architecture Application

“…4) User should observe that site addresses that start with "https://" are secured sites. 5) There are security tips available online to secure PI data from spywares and other applications [8,19].…”

“…One way to define it is the right of a user to control information about himself/herself. There are cases showing concerns and problems in the current implementation of user privacy management, such as issues with ChoicePoint Inc. [10] and U.S. Federal Trade Commission's complaint against SpyBlast [8]. Data misuses could have been prevented to some extent by using data encryption and security techniques [1,2].…”