Emilee Rader bio photo

Emilee Rader

Associate Professor @ the University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Out of the Loop: How Automated Software Updates Cause Unintended Security Consequences

by: Rick Wash, Emilee Rader, Kami Vaniea, and Michelle Rizor

Abstract

When security updates are not installed, or installed slowly, end users are at an increased risk for harm. To improve security, software designers have endeavored to remove the user from the software update loop. However, user involvement in software updates remains necessary; not all updates are wanted, and required reboots can negatively impact users. We used a multi-method approach to collect interview, survey, and computer log data from 37 Windows 7 users. We compared what the users think is happening on their computers (interview and survey data), what users want to happen on their computer (interview and survey data), and what was actually going on (log data). We found that 28 out of our 37 participants had a misunderstanding about what was happening on their computer, and that over half of the participants could not execute their intentions for computer management.

Reference

Rick Wash, Emilee Rader, Kami Vaniea, and Michelle Rizor. “Out of the Loop: How Automated Software Updates Cause Unintended Security ConsequencesSymposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS). Menlo Park, CA. July 2014.

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