PowerQoPE: A Personal Quality of Internet Protection and Experience Configurator

Mbewe, Enock Samuel and Sharma, Taveesh and Chavula, Josiah (2022) PowerQoPE: A Personal Quality of Internet Protection and Experience Configurator, Proceedings of IFIP International Symposium on Human Aspects of Information Security & Assurance (HAISA 2022), 6-7 July 2022, Mytilene, (Greece), Springer.

Text PowerQoPE_Mbewe_Camera_ready.pdf - Accepted Version Download (860kB)

Abstract

Security configuration remains obscure for many Internet users, especially those with limited computing skills. This obscurity exposes such users to various Internet attacks. Recently, there has been an increase in cyberattacks targeted at individuals due to the remote workforce imposed by the COVID 19 pandemic. These attacks have exposed the inefficiencies of the non-human-centric implementation of Internet security mechanisms and protocols. Security research usually positions users as the weakest link in the security ecosystem, making system and protocol developers exclude the users in the development process. This stereotypical approach has negatively affected users’ security uptake. Mostly, security systems are not comprehensible for an average user, negatively affecting performance and Quality of Experience. This causes the users to shun using security mechanisms. Building on human-centric cybersecurity research, we present a tool that aids in configuring Internet Quality of protection and Experience (referred to as PowerQoPE in this paper). We describe its architecture and design methodology and finally present evaluation results. Preliminary evaluation results show that user-centric and data-driven approaches in the design of Internet security systems improve users’ Quality of Experience. The controlled experiment results show that users are not really stupid; they know what they want and that given proper security configuration platforms with proper framing of components and information, they can make optimal security decisions.

Item Type:	Conference paper
Subjects:	Security and privacy Security and privacy > Human and societal aspects of security and privacy Security and privacy > Human and societal aspects of security and privacy > Economics of security and privacy Security and privacy > Human and societal aspects of security and privacy > Social aspects of security and privacy Security and privacy > Human and societal aspects of security and privacy > Privacy protections Security and privacy > Human and societal aspects of security and privacy > Usability in security and privacy
Date Deposited:	09 Jun 2022 10:39
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2022 10:39
URI:	https://pubs.cs.uct.ac.za/id/eprint/1528

Actions (login required)

View Item