Human Factors of Security and Privacy

Catalog description

The ubiquity of computing systems and information technology has made security and privacy become a central issue in the "information age." More and more evidence revealed that technology alone is not sufficient to solve security and privacy problems. Humans are often thought of as "the weakest link in the chain of various security and privacy issues." Thus, it is essential for security and privacy experts to have an understanding of the human factors of security and privacy, e.g., how people will interact with the systems they develop. This course is designed to provide students an overview of the theoretical foundations and empirical findings of human factors of security and privacy and give them experience in understanding and designing studies aimed at helping evaluate usability and user-interface issues in security and privacy systems. The course is suitable for students interested in privacy and security who would like to learn more about the human aspects, and for students interested in human factors/HCI who would like to learn more about security and privacy.