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Comparative Evaluation of Security and Convenience Trade-Offs in Password Generation Aiding Systems

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Advances in Human Factors in Cybersecurity (AHFE 2019)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 960))

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Abstract

A strong password is considered the most important feature for the security of any account credentials. In the last decades, several organizations focused on improving its strength and produced awareness initiatives and security guidelines on how to create and maintain secure passwords. However, studies found that users perceive security and convenience as a trade-off, and they often compromise password strength in favor of a key phrase that is easier to remember and type. Therefore, nowadays websites and applications implement password generation aiding systems (PGAS) that help, and even force, users to create more secure passwords. Nowadays, several types of PGAS are available, each implementing a different strategy for stimulating users in crating stronger and more secure passwords. In this paper, we present the results of a study in which we compared six different PGAS and evaluated their performance in terms of security and convenience, with the aim of suggesting the system that has the most beneficial trade-off depending on the type of application.

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Correspondence to Nicholas Caporusso .

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Stainbrook, M., Caporusso, N. (2020). Comparative Evaluation of Security and Convenience Trade-Offs in Password Generation Aiding Systems. In: Ahram, T., Karwowski, W. (eds) Advances in Human Factors in Cybersecurity. AHFE 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 960. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20488-4_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20488-4_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-20487-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-20488-4

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