SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

Security Considerations

Security Considerations

Introduction

Computer and network security has gained significant exposure in recent years, due to its importance in our current digital economy. The CSI Computer Crime and Security showed that 25% of respondents reported financial losses of over 60% due to actions by users inside the corporate network. Also, respondents felt that their investment in end-user security training was inadequate (Richardson, 2009). An important reason for these lapses is the fact that security management is a complicated and difficult fiction. This difficulty stems from multiple sources, but a recurring source of difficulty is the user interface and control activities associated with manipulating the security software systems. Clearly then, the development of better interfaces for managing and manipulating end-user security systems are needed. Multimodal input has been explored in numerous areas as a means for augmenting traditional keyboard and mouse mechanisms for computer input. Preeminent among the variety of multimodal possibilities, speech recognition technologies offer the promise of more natural computer input mechanisms as well as greater usability of systems by persons with disabilities.

Discussion

Systems that use voice recognition can be used to provide a more user-friendly product, which in turn, increases the likelihood of re-use and mastery in the future. Interestingly, given the importance of computer network security and the attractiveness of a multimodal system, there is no published research examining user attitudes toward voice input systems associated with computer security management and configuration. This research looks at users' reactions to the use of multimodal input for computer and network security configuration. Specifically, it investigates the acceptance of speech recognition for the configuration of user firewall settings (Bandura, 2005).

As noted either, multiple research studies have examined the acceptance of speech recognition for certain tasks, yet no research has investigated its acceptance for security-related configuration tasks. This gap offers an opportunity to examine a potentially useful system augmentation that has the potential to increase the quality of users' interactions with the security system. The utility of voice recognition in security application is, at this juncture, uncertain. Differences could exist both between security and traditional applications as well as within security applications based on the difficulty of the task as well as the experience of the user. As opposed to other traditional speech-enabled applications (dictation, navigation, etc.), security-related applications could carry extreme consequences for erroneous input and therefore speech-enabled applications in this area need be extensively tested prior to deployment. In earlier ...