Description
Establishing trust between users and their digital counterparts is essential. However, a
critical yet often overlooked aspect of this trust-establishment process is user interaction.
The user interaction problem encompasses instances where users are tasked with
responding to security prompts or verifying critical actions, such as pairing devices or
confirming financial transactions. For example, consider the Bluetooth pairing scenario
where users are prompted to compare numeric codes to ensure secure device connections.
Do users carefully check these codes, or do they resort to hasty confirmations,
potentially compromising security?
This bachelor thesis aims to analyze the user interaction problem by investigating
user behavior, decision-making processes, and the effectiveness of security prompts. By
examining real-world scenarios and conducting a user study, the goal is to shed light on
the user interaction and uncover potential vulnerabilities and avenues for improvement.
The results of the user study showed that 60% of participants did not notice that the
pairing codes did not match when performing a Bluetooth pairing, and 85% completed
the pairing process despite the mismatched codes. The presence of instructions in
the pairing dialog also led to different results. On devices with instructions, 19% of
users did not proceed with pairing. In contrast, on devices without instructions, every
participant completed the pairing process, regardless of mismatched codes.
|
