Usable Survivability
Citation:
Michael Atighetchi, Andrew Gronosky, Partha Pal, Joseph Loyall. Usable Survivability. 8th International Network Conference (INC) 2010, Workshop on "Security vs. Usability?" July 6 - 8 2010, Heidelberg, Germany
Formats: Abstract:
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This position paper explores the interplay between usability and survivability. Survivability is the ability of a system to operate while under attack, while usability is a composite property indicating ease of use and user satisfaction. A survivable system necessarily incorporates multiple security mechanisms, and security and usability sometimes tend to be at odds with each other. The position of this paper is that usable survivability is fostered by a middleware-based integration of security mechanisms that a) hides the complexity of interoperating components and presents a simpler interface to the users and applications, and b) flexibly balances the security and usability requirements of various stakeholders.
