Faculty in Technical Communication and Information Design Receive Cybersecurity Grant

A team of faculty in Technical Communication and Information Design (TCID) received a UCCS Faculty Cybersecurity seed grant to support their research. Sean Williams, Director of TCID, led the team that includes Alex Ilyasova, Associate Professor of TCID, Janice Thorpe, Senior Instructor of Communication, and Gurvirender Tejay, Associate Professor of Business. The project is titled “Exploring the User Experience Design of Commercially Available Cybersecurity Products for Personal Mobile Devices.” Continuing reading to view the project abstract.

ABSTRACT: Research shows that when software is difficult to use, the users will either not use it or find ways to shortcut the software, exposing themselves and their organizations to potential threats. Further, while most research in cybersecurity has focused on designing, implementing, and testing enterprise-scale systems, little research exists on cybersecurity for individual devices and especially not the end user experience of those applications. Additionally, most literature on cybersecurity systems focuses on the technical aspects of the systems with little or no regard for the preferences of actual users. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to examine the end user experience of consumer software for securing mobile devices from cyberattacks. Studying the user experience and behaviors related to commercially available software designed to secure individual devices will generate recommendations that the cybersecurity industry can implement to create highly usable systems and thereby drive mass adoption by individuals on mobile devices creating a “culture of cybersecurity” to complement the enterprise efforts already in place.