We are pleased to announce that our recent paper, Why phishing still works: user strategies for combating phishing attacks, will be published in the International Journal of Human Computer Studies. A pre-print will be available shortly. Here is the abstract: We have conducted a user study to assess whether improved browser security indicators and increased awareness of phishing have led to users' improved ability to protect themselves against such attacks. Participants were shown a … [Read more...] about Phishing paper to be published
BHCI paper accepted
We are happy to announce that Gerardo Reynaga's paper, "Heuristics for the Evaluation of Captchas on Smartphones" has been accepted at British HCI 2015. Gerardo will be presenting his work at the conference in July. … [Read more...] about BHCI paper accepted
OPC funding
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has announced the winners of the 2015-16 Contributions Program grants. We were very happy to learn that our project on mobile privacy for children has been funded. The main purpose of this research is to improve children's understanding of mobile online privacy, enable them to recognize potentially risky situations, and empower them to better protect themselves. The official press release is here. … [Read more...] about OPC funding
Malak wins IEEE Award
Malak Baslyman recently won the IEEE First Place Poster Award at the University of Ottawa annual poster competition. She presented her Smells Phishy? game designed and developed for her final project in the Security & Usability graduate course. She was featured in the Ottawa Business Journal. … [Read more...] about Malak wins IEEE Award
Matthew defends his thesis
Matthew Hull successfully defended his MA HCI thesis this morning. His research focused on factors affecting secure end-user behaviour. Congratulations Matthew! The abstract of his thesis is: Understanding users’ individual differences may provide clues to help identify computer users who are prone to act insecurely. We examine factors that impact users’ reported security behaviour with respect to some common computer security issues. We conducted two online surveys with a total of 650 … [Read more...] about Matthew defends his thesis
SERENE April 2015 workshop
The SERENE-RISC April workshop was held at the Museum of Nature this week. It brought together over a hundred industry, academic, and government participants interested in building a healthy, secure, Canadian digital ecosystem. … [Read more...] about SERENE April 2015 workshop
Stephanie presents poster at CRA-W
Stephanie Hurtado recently presented a work-in-progress poster about her thesis research on driver distraction at the CRA-Women Grad Cohort. The workshop was held in San Francisco, April 10-11. … [Read more...] about Stephanie presents poster at CRA-W
new DESI journal article on Password Expiration
We are happy to announce that our journal paper, Quantifying the Security Advantage of Password Expiration Policies, will appear in an upcoming issue of Springer's Designs, Codes and Cryptography. A pre-print authors' copy is available on our publications page. The abstract of the paper is as follows: Many security policies force users to change passwords within fixed intervals, with the apparent justification that this improves overall security. However, the implied security benefit has … [Read more...] about new DESI journal article on Password Expiration
SERENE-RISC’s 2015 Spring Workshop
The SERENE-RISC 2015 Spring Workshop will take place in Ottawa on April 22 and 23. The workshop theme is “Cybersecurity futures: Toward a healthy digital ecosystem”. It aims to move beyond the usual catastrophic discourse on the impending breakdown of critical infrastructures provoked by malicious actors and state-sponsored attacks. Instead, we would like to frame the discussion around a more optimistic outlook trying to imagine what cybersecurity might look like ten years down the road if … [Read more...] about SERENE-RISC’s 2015 Spring Workshop
CHORUS student secures internship with CaseWare International
Masters of Computer Science student Kaplana Hundlani will be completing an 8-month internship with CaseWare International in Ottawa, starting this May. This internship will give Kalpana real-world experience in software development using Agile processes. … [Read more...] about CHORUS student secures internship with CaseWare International