Not as easy as just update: Survey of System Administrators and Patching Behaviours
May 6, 2024·
Adam Jenkins
Kings College London
,Linsen Liu
University of Edinburgh
,Maria K. Wolters
Society Division, OFFIS
Kami Vaniea
University of Waterloo
·
0 min read
Abstract
Patching software theoretically leads to improvements including security critical changes, but it can also lead to new issues. For System Administrators (sysadmins) new issues can negatively impact operations at their organization. While mitigation options like test environments exist, little is known about their prevalence or how contextual factors like size of organization impact the practice of Patch Management. We surveyed 220 sysadmins engaged in Patch Management to investigate self-reported behaviors. We found that dedicated testing environments are not as prevalent as previously assumed. We also expand on known behaviours that sysadmins perform when facing a troublesome patch, such as employing a range of problem solving behaviours to inform their patching decisions.
Type
Publication
In Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ‘24)
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.