Using smart glasses for monitoring cyber threat intelligence feeds

Abstract

The surge of COVID-19 has introduced a new threat surface as malevolent actors are trying to benefit from the pandemic. Because of this, new information sources and visualization tools about COVID-19 have been introduced into the workflow of frontline practitioners. As a result, analysts are increasingly required to shift their focus between different visual displays to monitor pandemic related data, security threats, and incidents. Augmented reality (AR) smart glasses can overlay digital data to the physical environment in a comprehensible manner. However, the real-life use situations are often complex and require fast knowledge acquisition from multiple sources. In this study we report results from an experiment with six subjects using an AR overlaid information interface coupled with traditional computer monitors. Our goal was to evaluate a multi tasking setup with traditional monitors and an AR headset where notifications from the new COVID-19 MISP instance were visualized. Our results indicate that better situational awareness does translate to increased task performance, but at the cost of a gender gap that requires further attention.

ARTS: Augmented Reality Tactical Sandbox for improved situational awareness in a multi-user scenario

“…This meant they already had some experience with the application and task yet still, their scenario completion times were significantly higher than those of men. In a previous study (Korkiakoski et al ( 2021)) [18], we gathered similar results regarding gender but there are also studies (Grassini and Laumann (2020)) [56] showing the opposite. So, while this has been an interesting observation, we are not making any definitive statements based on this sampling since the number of women was rather small compared to the men.…”

“…The use of smart glasses to establish SA became a necessity after the lockdown policies established to counter the surge (Korkiakoski et al ( 2021)) [18] and one main result of the use of smart glasses was that there was a significant difference in how men and women perceived the situation (Korkiakoski et al ( 2021)) [18] which is an interesting result that should be investigated further to explore what can be the use of smart glasses in SA reveal.…”