Security | Kami Vaniea

Techreports with Security and Privacy Statistics

Mon, 24 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This page contains a list of techreports, white papers, and other sources of statistics about the current state of computer security and privacy. Companies and other large organizations often publish reports of statistics involving security and privacy that represent the state of security from their vantage point. These reports are generally respected and can be used in academic publications to describe the current state of security and privacy. However, be aware that the reports only provide a view from that one organization. It is generally a good idea to look at statistics from several of the reports below to get a wider view of what different organizations are seeing.

Many of the reports below are published yearly or sometimes every quarter so more recent versions may exist than what is listed here.

Sources

General Security Reports

(Previously known as Microsoft Security Intelligence Report)
NCSC: Cyber Security Breaches Survey ( , , )
CrowdStrike’s State of Application Security Report
Cloudflare’s Application Security Report

Privacy

: The current use, development and limits of Privacy Enhancing Technologies in data analysis by the Royal Society, March 2019

Transparency Reports

Transparency reports mostly for Facebook and Instagram. WhatsApp notably missing.

Phishing

- Proofpoint offers phishing training, and testing. Techreport is derived from data from their products as well as a survey they run across multiple countries

Government reports

- Includes measures of “Being Safe and Legal Online” and “Handling Information and Content”
– The Facts 2021
UK Cyber Security Breaches Survey ( , , )

Security Notifications in Static Analysis Tools: Developers' Attitudes, Comprehension, and Ability to Act on Them

Sat, 01 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Patch Management

Tue, 27 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Updating software is one of the most effective methods of protecting computers from security vulnerabilities, yet many people and organisations choose to not install them. In this project we endevor to understand the attitudes of people making update decisions and the barriers they face that can impact their willingness and ability to keep their software up to date.

Updating software means changing it. Ideally those changes are for the better such as improved security, better features, fixed bugs, and additional functionality. However, they can also lead to worse outcomes such as slower software, new problems, changes to frequently used functionality, and new security vulnerabilities. According to our research, many of the issues around software updating are actually issues around balancing risks and benefits when neither of these are fully known. For example, the update that protected against the WannaCry ransomeware attack was made available a month before the attack happened, those that installed it were therefore protected and not impacted by the attack. But it would have been impossible for a system administrator to know at the time of update release that a devistating world wide ransomware attack was comming. Incidents like WannaCry suggest that installing patches quickly is a good idea, which is true, but it should also be understood that installing patches quickly also carries risks. For example, Microsoft released a Windows 10 update which then started deleting all the files on the desktop. They acknowledged the issue and offered a work around, but the issue was terrifying and highly disruptive for users, particularly those who installed updates quickly.

"I Don't Know Too Much About It": On the Security Mindsets of Computer Science Students

Sun, 01 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A Survey on Developer-Centred Security

Sat, 01 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Debunking security-usability tradeoff myths

Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Tales of Software Updates: The process of updating software

Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

News

Several news stories cited the work in regards to WannaCry and Petya.

by Adam Bradley in Forbes, 2019
by Elissa Redmiles published in The Conversation, 2017

Computer security information in stories, news articles, and education documents

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Betrayed By Updates: How Negative Experiences Affect Future Security

Tue, 01 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Out of the loop: How automated software updates cause unintended security consequences

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000