Betrayed by Updates: How Negative Experiences Affect Future Security

Kami E. Vaniea, Emilee Rader, Rick Wash

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Installing security-relevant software updates is one of the best computer protection mechanisms. However, users do not always choose to install updates. Through interviewing non-expert Windows users, we found that users frequently decide not to install future updates, regardless of whether they are important for security, after negative experiences with past updates. This means that even non-security updates (such as user interface changes) can impact the security of a computer. We discuss three themes impacting users' willingness to install updates: unexpected new features in an update, the difficulty of assessing whether an update is "worth it", and confusion about why an update is necessary.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 32Nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Place of PublicationNew York, NY, USA
PublisherACM
Pages2671-2674
Number of pages4
ISBN (Print)978-1-4503-2473-1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • human factors, security, software updates

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Betrayed by Updates: How Negative Experiences Affect Future Security'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this