Know your enemy: The risk of unauthorized access in smartphones by insiders

Ildar Muslukhov, Yazan Boshmaf, Cynthia Kuo, Jonathan Lester, Konstantin Beznosov

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

79 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Smartphones store large amounts of sensitive data, such as SMS messages, photos, or email. In this paper, we report the results of a study investigating users' concerns about unauthorized data access on their smartphones (22 interviewed and 724 surveyed subjects). We found that users are generally concerned about insiders (e.g., friends) accessing their data on smartphones. Furthermore, we present the first evidence that the insider threat is a real problem impacting smartphone users. In particular, 12% of subjects reported a negative experience with unauthorized access. We also found that younger users are at higher risk of experiencing unauthorized access. Based on our results, we propose a stronger adversarial model that incorporates the insider threat. To better reflect users' concerns and risks, a stronger adversarial model must be considered during the design and evaluation of data protection systems and authentication methods for smartphones.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMobileHCI 2013 - Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services
Pages271-280
Number of pages10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes
Event15th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, MobileHCI 2013 - Munich, Germany
Duration: 27 Aug 201330 Aug 2013

Publication series

NameMobileHCI 2013 - Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services

Conference

Conference15th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, MobileHCI 2013
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityMunich
Period27/08/1330/08/13

Keywords

  • insider
  • loss
  • physical threats
  • smartphone
  • stranger
  • theft
  • user study

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