Guest Editors' Introduction: Secure or Usable?

Security&Privacy
2004
Issue No. 5 - September-October
Abstract - Guest Editors' Introduction: Secure or Usable?

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Guest Editors' Introduction: Secure or Usable? (HTML)

September-October 2004 (vol. 2 no. 5)

pp. 16-18

	ASCII Text	x
	Lorrie Faith Cranor, Simson Garfinkel, "Guest Editors' Introduction: Secure or Usable?," IEEE Security and Privacy, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 16-18, September-October, 2004.

	BibTex	x
	@article{ 10.1109/MSP.2004.69, author = {Lorrie Faith Cranor and Simson Garfinkel}, title = {Guest Editors' Introduction: Secure or Usable?}, journal ={IEEE Security and Privacy}, volume = {2}, number = {5}, issn = {1540-7993}, year = {2004}, pages = {16-18}, doi = {http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MSP.2004.69}, publisher = {IEEE Computer Society}, address = {Los Alamitos, CA, USA}, }

	RefWorks Procite/RefMan/Endnote	x
	TY - MGZN JO - IEEE Security and Privacy TI - Guest Editors' Introduction: Secure or Usable? IS - 5 SN - 1540-7993 SP16 EP18 EPD - 16-18 A1 - Lorrie Faith Cranor, A1 - Simson Garfinkel, PY - 2004 KW - usability KW - security VL - 2 JA - IEEE Security and Privacy ER -

Lorrie Faith Cranor, Carnegie Mellon University

Simson Garfinkel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

DOI Bookmark: http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MSP.2004.69

There's an old joke that computers are actually easy machines to secure: just turn them off, lock them in a metal-lined room, and throw away the key. What you end up with is a machine that is very secure--just not very usable.

As the joke's continuing popularity demonstrates, many people believe that there is an inherent trade-off between security and usability. A computer without passwords is usable, but not very secure. On the other hand, a computer that requires you to authenticate every 5 minutes with your password and a fresh drop of blood might indeed be very secure, but nobody would want to use it.

Index Terms:

usability, security

Citation:

Lorrie Faith Cranor, Simson Garfinkel, "Guest Editors' Introduction: Secure or Usable?," IEEE Security and Privacy, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 16-18, Sept.-Oct. 2004, doi:10.1109/MSP.2004.69

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