Usability of Security Tools - A Tutorial

Missy K

Informations

• Publié par: Ictio
• Nombre de lectures: 13
• Langue: English

Extrait

Usability of Security Tools: A Tutorial By Melissa Karolewski & Tuté Ehinlaye For the purpose of this research, it is imperative that both the ease usability and understanding be taken into account when designing a means to test a couple current security tools. These tools will be tools that are identified as commonly used security tools, such as McAfee, a Firewall, Windows Anti-Spy-ware (Windows Defender), Lavasoft Adaware, and Windows Live, One Care. All of the programs listed below, are beneficial to the protection of computers, therefore they all must be understood a minimal level. The areas in which the tutorial will focus on the interaction between user and program are: 1)Ease of Use and Complexity a.Can the user easily open up the program and understand quickly which icons do which functions and also, can the user quickly find the icons on the program or in the drop down menus. b.Are the colors appealing, and easy to distinguish text from the background. c.Readability, size, color, spacing d.Are the menus consistent 2)How quickly does the program load? a.Does the speed in loading bother the user? b.Does the program open too quickly, and cause the user to not have enough time to read everything necessary? 3)Errors a.Are there vague error alerts. b.Is the help menu not useful c.Can the user Undo operations? d.Is there a step by step initial setup to follow? 4)Can the system be used with little stress to the user? 5)Is the GUI user friendly? 6)Does the program conform to Kerchoff’s Principle? a.Can the system be easily cracked? 7)Time to complete task a.Was the task completed. The tutorial that will be followed is below. The programs that were chosen for the participants to try were: McAfee Anti-Virus, Ad-Aware and Windows Defender. The tutorial contains a couple tasks from each of the programs. By choosing a few different programs, a wider scope of the ease of use of security tools can be examined. The users that were selected were a variety of students, professors, and staff from a variety of disciples. An overview of each participant is listed below. The participants were chosen at random. There were ?? participants.

Dear Participant,  Thank you for taking the time to voluntarily participate in this study of the usability of some common security tools. You will be anonymous, and the results of your participation in this workshop will be used to conclude research conducted during the 2005 – 2006 school year on Security Usability, by 2 women in the Computer Science Department. The tutorial will last no longer than an hour. Once, again, thank you very much for participating in this study and tutorial. Please provide the information below, and sign this form, indicating you agree for your results to be including in the study. Thank You, Melissa Karolewski and Tute Ehinlaye Age:__________ Sex:M F Major/Profession:____________________ Education:________________________ Signature:_________________________________

Volunteer # __________ Tutorial McAfee Anti-Virus 1)Open up Virus Scan Console, from Network Associates

The screen should look like this. 2)Select Scan All Fixed Disks

a.Select Schedule.

i.Schedule the Virus Scan to Scan all fixed discs every day at 3 am. b.Select Actions i.Set primary action to be Prompt for Action ii.Change the folder that quarantined virus will be sent. 3)Find out when Virus scan was last run. a.Select Task i.Select View Log ii.Write the last time Virus Scan was run and the run time.

iii.What is the file called? 4)Set the Virus Scan to Automatically Update the .dat (Virus Definitions) files. a.Select Auto Update i.Set the Scan to Automatically Update Everyday at 1 am. 5)When was the .dat files last updated?

Volunteer # __________ Tutorial Lavasoft Ad-aware 1)Open Ad-aware

Screen should look like this! 2)Update the spyware definitions a.Check for Updates Now 3)Setup to run a Full system scan.

4)View Quarantined Objects a.Select Lock

5)Change the program so it runs in the background. a.Select Gear b.Select Tweak c.Select Run Scan in Background

Follow-up Questions 1)Was it easy to know what the icons meant? 2)Were the tasks too hard? 3)Did you find this information useful?

Volunteer # __________ Tutorial Windows Defender 1)Open Windows Defender

2)Change the settings so that program runs a full scan every day at 4:00 am a.Select Tools i.General Settings

3)How do you change the classification of the programs, are they allowed, not allowed. a.List a program that is allowed

b.List a program that is not allowed Follow-up Questions 1)Did you successfully complete the tutorial? 2)Was the user interface easy to understand and use? 3)Would you use this program on your computer? Tutorial Follow-up 1)Did you felt the tutorial was complicated and/or confusing? 2)Did you feel the programs were easy to use, understand, and provides protection to your computer? 3)Did you feel confused or overwhelmed by the tasks? 4)Would you download these programs to use on your home computer? 5)Do you feel as if you learned something? 6)Do you feel as if understanding how to set up and run these programs is useful? 7)Does understanding how to use these programs, make you feel as if your computer is safer?