Agent-based modeling of user circumvention of security
Vijay H. Kothari, Jim Blythe, Sean W. Smith, Ross Koppel · 2014
Security subsystems are often designed with flawed assumptions arising from system designers' faulty mental models. Designers tend to assume that users behave according to some textbook ideal, and to consider each potential exposure/interface in isolation. However, fieldwork continually shows that even well-intentioned users often depart from this ideal and circumvent controls in order to perform daily work tasks, and that "incorrect" user behaviors can create unexpected links between otherwise "independent" interfaces. When it comes to security features and parameters, designers try to find the choices that optimize security utility---except these flawed assumptions give rise to an incorrect curve, and lead to choices that actually make security worse, in practice.