CHORUS Lab

Carleton's Human Oriented Research in Usable Security Lab

 

Sonia Chiasson

CIRA funding received

by

We were very happy to be awarded a research grant from the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA)'s Community Investment Program to study user authentication for children.  The main purpose of this project is to explore which types of user authentication are most effective for children and make recommendations on the most appropriate configurations. … [Read more...] about CIRA funding received

Phishing paper to be published

by

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

OPC funding

by

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

by

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

by

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

new DESI journal article on Password Expiration

by

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

by

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