The true cost of unusable password policies: password use in the wild

HCI research published 10 years ago pointed out that many users cannot cope with the number and complexity of passwords, and resort to insecure workarounds as a consequence. We present a study which re-examined password policies and password practice in the workplace today. 32 staff members in two organisations kept a password diary for 1 week, which produced a sample of 196 passwords. The diary was followed by an interview which covered details of each password, in its context of use. We find that users are in general concerned to maintain security, but that existing security policies are too inflexible to match their capabilities, and the tasks and contexts in which they operate. As a result, these password policies can place demands on users which impact negatively on their productivity and, ultimately, that of the organisation. We conclude that, rather than focussing password policies on maximizing password strength and enforcing frequency alone, policies should be designed using HCI principles to help the user to set an appropriately strong password in a specific context of use

Blogging as a viable research methodology for young people with arthritis: a qualitative study.

The development of services that are responsive to the needs of users is a health policy priority. Finding ways of engaging young people in research to gain insights into their particular experiences, perspectives, and needs is vital but challenging. These data are critical to improving services in ways that meet the needs of young people

Diary Web – Based Application

This document is a fully completed stage report for a project titled “Diary Web – Based Application” that relating to how aspects of apply the diary in life and an electronic application of audio voice recorder that can be combined to create a fully autonomous voice recording for diary machine. The existing application of diary application that applicable is a web – based system where it will automatically generated from user ideas, histories or activities that need to be saved. It consists of location, time and date for the information that being recorded but it not useful when retrieved as references or playback the information. In this project had do a researched, designed and ultimately implemented using a combination of web based which is XAMPP Software that consist of PHP language, Apache Application and also using Database system application which is MySQL for record purposes in the application system development. The electronic of voice recorder is implemented in JAVA language with audio functionality and being formatted in WAV audio format. This application will use a suitable pattern matching system that gives satisfaction to user, secure and easy to use. KEYWORDS: Voice Recorder, Diary, Web – based, JAVA, PHP, MySQL, Database, WAV audio format, XAMPP Software, Apache Applicatio

Perceived risk and sensitive data on mobile devices

This paper reports on a survey to investigate the behaviour and assumptions of smartphone users, with reference to the security practices adopted by such users. The primary objective was to shed light on the level of information security awareness in smartphone users and determine the extent of sensitive information such users typically hold on these mobile devices

Blogging: self presentation and privacy

Blogs are permeating most niches of social life, and addressing a wide range of topics from scholarly and political issues1 to family and children’s daily lives. By their very nature, blogs raise a number of privacy issues as they are easy to produce and disseminate, resulting in large amounts of sometimes personal information being broadcast across the Internet in a persistent and cumulative manner. This article reports the preliminary findings of an online survey of bloggers from around the world. The survey explored bloggers’ subjective sense of privacy by examining their blogging practices and their expectations of privacy when publishing online. The findings suggest that blogging offers individuals a unique opportunity to work on their self-identity via the degree of self-expression and social interaction that is available in this medium. This finding helps to explain why bloggers consciously bring the ‘private’ to the public realm, despite the inherent privacy risks they face in doing so

Developing a medical software to enhance patient participation

Mental health disorder is a frequent issue among cancer patients. It is estimated that in about 30% of cancer patients, psychological issues are undetected. Psychooncology is a subdomain of psychology, which studies cancer related psychological issues and, hence, develop appropriate treatments. With the help of screening instruments like the Distress Thermometer, patients are rated according to their mental state. The result of the screening indicates, whether a patient needs psychological treatment or not. However, in most medical facilities this screening is processed using paper-based questionnaires, which complicates the treatment. This thesis aims for enhancing the screening process as well as the overall psychological treatment with a newly developed mobile application Feelback. The mentioned application uses patient participation principles by applying the latter. Patients shall feel more involved in the psychological treatment process. This results in patients that take a more active role in making decisions related to their treatment. Moreover, sophisticated gamification concepts guarantee long-term motivated users. From the medical facility’s point of view, screened patients are evaluated in an automated manner, which, in term, saves time and money. In addition, Feelback makes it easier to document psychological treatments. At the current state of development, further steps should focus on user acceptance testing, in order to verify, whether the mentioned concepts work as intended

User requirements for the development of smartphone self-reporting applications in healthcare

Two case studies of the development of Smartphone self-reporting mHealth applications are described: a wellness diary for asthma management combined with Bluetooth pulse oximeter and manual peak flow measurements; and a questionnaire for ecological assessment of distress during fertility treat-ment. Results are presented of user experiences with the self-reporting applica-tion and the capture of physiological measurements in the case of the asthma diary project and the findings from a phone audit at an early stage of design in the case of the in vitro fertilisation (IVF) study. Issues raised by ethics commit-tees are also discussed. It is concluded that the optimal adoption of Smartphone self-reporting applications will require a good appreciation of user and ethics panel requirements at an early stage in their development, so that the correct de-sign choices can be made