I Don't Need an Expert! Making URL Phishing Features Human Comprehensible
Abstract
Judging the safety of a URL is something that even security experts struggle to do accurately without additional information. In this work, we aim to make experts’ tools accessible to non-experts and assist general users in judging the safety of URLs by providing them with a usable report based on the information professionals use. We designed the report by iterating with 8 focus groups made up of end users, HCI experts, and security experts to ensure that the report was usable as well as accurately interpreted the information. We also conducted an online evaluation with 153 participants to compare different report-length options. We find that the longer comprehensive report allows users to accurately judge URL safety (93% accurate) and that summaries still provide benefit (83% accurate) compared to domain highlighting (65% accurate).
Type
Publication
In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Authors
Kami Vaniea
(she/her)
Associate Professor
I am an Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) where I head the Technology Usability Lab in Privacy and Security (TULiPS). The goal of my research is to make security and privacy technologies more accessible for a wide range of users including end users, developers, and system administrators. I believe that technology should support people in their activities. My recent projects include topics like patch management, developer-centered privacy, phishing, online anonymity, smart speaker privacy, and privacy on social media.