Survey Finds Users Ignoring Security Certificates
By Gina on July 28, 2009 | Computer Security, security basics, security certificates, online security, survey, web browsing, statistics
Research at Carnegie Mellon University revealed surprising tendencies: security certificates may seem to be informative but users tend to ignore them. Are the warnings worth something if they are not useful in real life situations?
Researchers questioned more than 400 people via online survey and then selected 100 of them for further analysis. Lab study investigated web surfing habits. While findings depend on default web browser as different browsers use different means to deliver the warning, the results of Carnegie Mellon University survey are shocking in each case. 55 to 100 percent of participants simply ignored alerts related to security certificates.
Users find the certificate warnings a minor deal because of the lack of information. The study showed that web surfers ignore the security messages on websites they trust and the alerts only get more attention on sites users don’t know that well. This point of view brings lots of security and privacy issues. The certificate indicates a website is the one surfer want to visit and warning indicates some kind of redirection. Receiving a warning on a trusted website should raise more suspicion. If a fraudulent source is displayed instead of page user intended to visit, sensitive data might be stolen easily.
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