Salvador Rivas

Socio-Technical Study on the Effect of Trust and Context When Choosing WiFi Names

We study trust and context as factors influencing how people choose wireless network names. Our approach imagines the mindset of a hypothetical attacker whose goal is to ensnare unsuspecting victims into accessing dishonest WiFi access points. For this purpose, we conducted an online survey. We used two separate forms. The first form asked a random group of participants to rate a list of wireless names according to their preferences (some real and others purposely made-up) and afterwards with implied trust in mind. The second form was designed to assess the effect of context and it asked a different set of respondents to rate the same list of wireless names in relation to four different contexts. Our results provide some evidence confirming the idea that trust and context can be exploited by an attacker by purposely, or strategically, naming WiFi access points with reference to trust or within certain contexts. We suggest, in certain cases, possible defence strategies.

Do Graphical Cues Effectively Inform Users

We study whether the padlock and the signal strength bars, two visual cues shown in network managers, convey their intended messages. Since users often choose insecure networks when they should not, finding the answer is not obvious; in our study we clarify whether the problem lies in uninformative and ambiguous cues or in the user who, despite understanding the cues, chooses otherwise. This paper describes experiments and comments the results that bring evidence to our study.