An interesting article about Jakob Nielsen’s work on eye-tracking studies of web page browsing.
People look down the pages in an ‘F’ pattern, with a few stripes at top–the first one longer than the second–and then down the long vertical stripe to see if is any else.
Eye tracking Web usability Read More »
An interesting article on social engineering attacks…
The lesson here is that social engineering is a major component of hacking in both fictional and real scenarios. By merely trying to prevent infiltration on a technical level and ignoring the physical-social level, we are leaving ourselves wide open to attack.
Social engineering reloaded Read More »
From an interesting article on the CSICOP web site:
Scientists have long lamented the public’s persistent belief in the paranormal. In this area, recent Gallup polling shows both good news and bad news. Every few years since 1990 the survey organization has asked Americans whether they believe, don’t believe, or are not sure about a range of paranormal phenomena. The good news is that compared to 2001, fewer Americans say they believe in extra-sensory perception, fewer Americans say they believe in the ability to communicate with the dead, and fewer Americans say they believe that extra-terrestrials have visited the Earth. …
The bad news is that public belief in other forms of paranormal phenomena shows little or no significant change. Specifically, there remains relatively strong belief in psychic/spiritual healing (55% say they believe, 17% say they are unsure, and only 26% say they don’t believe), in devil possession (42%, 13%, and 44% across response categories), and in haunted houses (37%, 16%, and 46% respectively)…
Belief in ESP
New Poll Results on Belief in the Paranormal Read More »
Until we’re all retrofitted with input jacks — or, let’s get real, wireless receivers — we humans, with our legacy analog-only sensoriums, represent a terrible security risk.
The analog security hole Read More »
An interesting study on creating passwords…
Password Security: What Users Know and What They Actually Do
This study investigated the common password generation practices of online users. Three hundred and fifteen undergraduate and graduate students completed a survey querying (1) the types and number of different password protected accounts maintained; (2) actual practices used in generating, storing and using passwords; (3) practices believed they should use in generating and storing passwords; and (4) general demographic information. Results indicate that, in general, users do not vary the complexity of passwords depending on the nature of the site (bank account vs. instant messenger) or change their passwords on any regular basis if it is not required by the site. Users report using lower case letters, numbers or digits, personally meaningful numbers and personally meaningful words when creating passwords, despite the fact that they realize that these methods may not be the most secure.
Password Security: What Users Know and What They Actually Do Read More »
A cute article by Joel Spolsky on usability.
Usability in One Easy Step (First Draft) – Joel on Software
Something is usable if it behaves exactly as expected.
Usability in One Easy Step (First Draft) – Joel on Software Read More »
Here is an interesting story about user behavior when it comes to security. This was an experiment with a different kind of trojan horse delivery.
Proof: Employees don’t care about security
An experiment carried out within London’s square mile has revealed that employees in some of the City’s best known financial services companies don’t care about basic security policy.
Proof: Employees don’t care about security Read More »
OK, so I just launched
The Internet Security Guide for Home Users
http://www.andrewpatrick.ca/securityguide/index.html
This guide provides basic, usable information about Internet security at home. It also provides forums for Questions and Answers and the latest security news.
Check it out.
New Internet security guide Read More »
An interesting view of fixing the spam problem 🙂
Fixing the spam problem… Read More »
