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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The good, the bad and the ugly
T2 - a study of security decisions in a cyber-physical systems game
AU - Frey, Sylvain Andre Francis
AU - Rashid, Awais
AU - Anthonysamy, Pauline
AU - Pinto-Albuquerque, Maria
AU - Naqvi, Syed Asad Ali
N1 - © Copyright 2018 IEEE
PY - 2017/12/13
Y1 - 2017/12/13
N2 - Stakeholders' security decisions play a fundamental role in determining security requirements, yet, little is currently understood about how different stakeholder groups within an organisation approach security and the drivers and tacit biases underpinning their decisions. We studied and contrasted the security decisions of three demographics -- security experts, computer scientists and managers -- when playing a tabletop game that we designed and developed. The game tasks players with managing the security of a cyber-physical environment while facing various threats. Analysis of 12 groups of players (4 groups in each of our demographics) reveals strategies that repeat in particular demographics, e.g., managers and security experts generally favoring technological solutions over personnel training, which computer scientists preferred. Surprisingly, security experts were not ipso facto better players -- in some cases, they made very questionable decisions -- yet they showed a higher level of confidence in themselves. We classified players' decision-making processes, i.e., procedure-, experience-, scenario- or intuition-driven. We identified decision patterns, both good practices and typical errors and pitfalls. Our game provides a requirements sandbox in which players can experiment with security risks, learn about decision-making and its consequences, and reflect on their own perception of security.
AB - Stakeholders' security decisions play a fundamental role in determining security requirements, yet, little is currently understood about how different stakeholder groups within an organisation approach security and the drivers and tacit biases underpinning their decisions. We studied and contrasted the security decisions of three demographics -- security experts, computer scientists and managers -- when playing a tabletop game that we designed and developed. The game tasks players with managing the security of a cyber-physical environment while facing various threats. Analysis of 12 groups of players (4 groups in each of our demographics) reveals strategies that repeat in particular demographics, e.g., managers and security experts generally favoring technological solutions over personnel training, which computer scientists preferred. Surprisingly, security experts were not ipso facto better players -- in some cases, they made very questionable decisions -- yet they showed a higher level of confidence in themselves. We classified players' decision-making processes, i.e., procedure-, experience-, scenario- or intuition-driven. We identified decision patterns, both good practices and typical errors and pitfalls. Our game provides a requirements sandbox in which players can experiment with security risks, learn about decision-making and its consequences, and reflect on their own perception of security.
U2 - 10.1109/TSE.2017.2782813
DO - 10.1109/TSE.2017.2782813
M3 - Journal article
JO - IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
JF - IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
SN - 0098-5589
ER -