arXiv subjects

Nalin Asanka Gamagedara Arachchilage

Publications and source records attributed to Nalin Asanka Gamagedara Arachchilage.

47 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Defending against Phishing Attacks: Taxonomy of Methods, Current Issues and Future Directions

Internet technology is so pervasive today, for example, from online social networking to online banking, it has made people's lives more comfortable. Due the growth of Internet technology, security threats to systems and networks are relentlessly inventive. One such a serious threat is "phishing", in which, attackers attempt to steal the user's credentials using fake emails or websites or both. It is true that both industry and academia are working hard to develop solutions to combat against phishing threats. It is therefore very important that organisations to pay attention to end-user awareness in phishing threat prevention. Therefore, the aim of our paper is twofold. First, we will discuss the history of phishing attacks and the attackers' motivation in details. Then, we will provide taxonomy of various types of phishing attacks. Second, we will provide taxonomy of various solutions proposed in literature to protect users from phishing based on the attacks identified in our taxonomy. Moreover, we have also discussed impact of phishing attacks in Internet of Things (IoTs). We conclude our paper discussing various issues and challenges that still exist in the literature, which are important to fight against with phishing threats.

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arXiv2017

A Conceptual Model for the Organisational Adoption of Information System Security Innovations

Information System (IS) Security threats is still a major concern for many organisations. However, most organisations fall short in achieving a successful adoption and implementation of IS security measures. In this paper, we developed a theoretical model for the adoption process of IS Security innovations in organisations. The model was derived by combining four theoretical models of innovation adoption, namely: Diffusion of Innovation theory (DOI), the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) framework. The model depicts IS security innovation adoption in organisations, as two decision proceedings. The adoption process from the initiation stage until the acquisition of innovation is considered as a decision made by organisation while the process of innovation assimilation is assumed as a result of the user acceptance of innovation within the organisation. In addition, the model describes the IS Security adoption process progressing in three sequential stages, i.e. pre-adoption, adoption- decision and post-adoption phases. The model also introduces several factors that influence the different stages of IS Security innovation adoption process. This study contributes to IS security literature by proposing an overall model of IS security adoption that includes organisational adoption and user acceptance of innovation in a single illustration. Also, IS security adoption model proposed in this study provides important practical implications for research and practice.

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arXiv2017

Security Strength Indicator in Fallback Authentication: Nudging Users for Better Answers in Secret Questions

In this paper, we describe ongoing work that focuses on improving the strength of the answers to security questions. The ultimate goal of the proposed research is to evaluate the possibility of nudging users towards strong answers for ubiquitous security questions. In this research we are proposing a user interface design for fallback authentication to encourage users to design stronger answers. The proposed design involves visual feedback to the user based on mnemonics which attempts to give visual feedback to the user on the strength of the answer provided and guide the user to creatively design a stronger answer.

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arXiv2016

Serious Games for Cyber Security Education

Phishing is an online identity theft that aims to steal sensitive information such as username, passwords and online banking details from its victims. Phishing education needs to be considered as a means to combat this threat. This book focuses on a design and development of a mobile game prototype as an educational tool helping computer users to protect themselves against phishing attacks. The elements of a game design framework for avoiding phishing attacks were used to address the game design issues. The mobile game design aimed to enhance the user's avoidance behaviour through motivation to protect themselves against phishing threats. A think-aloud study was conducted, along with a pre- and post-test, to assess the game design framework through the developed mobile game prototype. The study results showed a significant improvement of participants' phishing avoidance behaviour in their post-test assessment. Furthermore, the study findings suggest that participants' threat perception, safeguard effectiveness, self-efficacy, perceived severity and perceived susceptibility elements positively impact threat avoidance behaviour, whereas safeguard cost had a negative impact on it.

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arXiv2016

A Model for the Adoption Process of Information System Security Innovations in Organisations: A Theoretical Perspective

In this paper, we develop a theoretical model for the adoption process of Information System Security innovations in organisations. The model stemmed from the Diffusion of Innovation theory (DOI), the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) framework. The model portrays Information System Security adoption process progressing in a sequence of stages. The study considers the adoption process from the initiation stage until the acquisition of innovation as an organisational level judgement while the process of innovation assimilation and integration is assessed in terms of the user behaviour within the organisation. The model also introduces several factors that influence the Information System Security innovation adoption. By merging the organisational adoption and user acceptance of innovation in a single depiction, this research contributes to IS security literature a more comprehensive model for IS security adoption in organisation, compare to any of the past representations.

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arXiv2016

Designing a Mobile Game for Home Computer Users to Protect Against Phishing Attacks

This research aims to design an educational mobile game for home computer users to prevent from phishing attacks. Phishing is an online identity theft which aims to steal sensitive information such as username, password and online banking details from victims. To prevent this, phishing education needs to be considered. Mobile games could facilitate to embed learning in a natural environment. The paper introduces a mobile game design based on a story which is simplifying and exaggerating real life. We use a theoretical model derived from Technology Threat Avoidance Theory (TTAT) to address the game design issues and game design principles were used as a set of guidelines for structuring and presenting information. The overall mobile game design was aimed to enhance avoidance behaviour through motivation of home computer users to protect against phishing threats. The prototype game design is presented on Google App Inventor Emulator. We believe by training home computer users to protect against phishing attacks, would be an aid to enable the cyberspace as a secure environment.

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arXiv2016

A Trust Domains Taxonomy for Securely Sharing Information: A Preliminary Investigation

Information sharing has become a vital part in our day-to-day life due to the pervasiveness of Internet technology. In any given collaboration, information needs to flow from one participant to another. While participants may be interested in sharing information with one another, it is often necessary for them to establish the impact of sharing certain kinds of information. This is because certain information could have detrimental effects when it ends up in wrong hands. For this reason, any would-be participant in a given collaboration may need to establish the guarantees that the collaboration provides, in terms of protecting sensitive information, before joining the collaboration as well as evaluating the impact of sharing a given piece of information with a given set of entities. In order to address this issue, earlier work introduced a trust domains taxonomy that aims at managing trust-related issues in information sharing. This paper attempts to empirically investigate the proposed taxonomy through a possible scenario (e.g. the ConfiChair system). The study results determined that Role, Policy, Action, Control, Evidence and Asset elements should be incorporated into the taxonomy for securely sharing information among others. Additionally, the study results showed that the ConfiChair, a novel cloud-based conference management system, offers strong privacy and confidentiality guarantees.

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arXiv2015

Developing a Trust Domain Taxonomy for Securely Sharing Information Among Others

In any given collaboration, information needs to flow from one participant to another. While participants may be interested in sharing information with one another, it is often necessary for them to establish the impact of sharing certain kinds of information. This is because certain information could have detrimental effects when it ends up in wrong hands. For this reason, any would-be participant in a collaboration may need to establish the guarantees that the collaboration provides, in terms of protecting sensitive information, before joining the collaboration as well as evaluating the impact of sharing a given piece of information with a given set of entities. The concept of a trust domains aims at managing trust-related issues in information sharing. It is essential for enabling efficient collaborations. Therefore, this research attempts to develop a taxonomy for trust domains with measurable trust characteristics, which provides security-enhanced, distributed containers for the next generation of composite electronic services for supporting collaboration and data exchange within and across multiple organisations. Then the developed taxonomy is applied to possible scenarios (e.g. Health Care Service Scenario and ConfiChair Scenario), in which the concept of trust domains could be useful.

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arXiv2015

Designing a mobile game to thwarts malicious IT threats: A phishing threat avoidance perspective

Phishing is an online identity theft, which aims to steal sensitive information such as username, password and online banking details from victims. To prevent this, phishing education needs to be considered. Game based education is becoming more and more popular. This paper introduces a mobile game prototype for the android platform based on a story, which simplifies and exaggerates real life. The elements of a game design framework for avoiding phishing attacks were used to address the game design issues and game design principles were used as a set of guidelines for structuring and presenting information. The overall mobile game design was aimed to enhance the user's avoidance behaviour through motivation to protect themselves against phishing threats. The prototype mobile game design was presented on MIT App Inventor Emulator.

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arXiv2015

User-Centred Security Education: A Game Design to Thwart Phishing Attacks

Phishing is an online identity theft that aims to steal sensitive information such as username, password and online banking details from its victims. Phishing education needs to be considered as a means to combat this threat. This paper reports on a design and development of a mobile game prototype as an educational tool helping computer users to protect themselves against phishing attacks. The elements of a game design framework for avoiding phishing attacks were used to address the game design issues. Game design principles served as guidelines for structuring and presenting information. Our mobile game design aimed to enhance the users' avoidance behaviour through motivation to protect themselves against phishing threats. A think-aloud study was conducted, along with a pre- and post-test, to assess the game design framework though the developed mobile game prototype. The study results showed a significant improvement of participants' phishing avoidance behaviour in their post-test assessment. Furthermore, the study findings suggest that participants' threat perception, safeguard effectiveness, self-efficacy, perceived severity and perceived susceptibility elements positively impact threat avoidance behaviour, whereas safeguard cost had a negative impact on it.

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arXiv2015

Can a Mobile Game Teach Computer Users to Thwart Phishing Attacks?

Phishing is an online fraudulent technique, which aims to steal sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and online banking details from its victims. To prevent this, anti-phishing education needs to be considered. This research focuses on examining the effectiveness of mobile game based learning compared to traditional online learning to thwart phishing threats. Therefore, a mobile game prototype was developed based on the design introduced by Arachchilage and Cole [3]. The game design aimed to enhance avoidance behaviour through motivation to thwart phishing threats. A website developed by Anti-Phishing Work Group (APWG) for the public Anti-phishing education initiative was used as a traditional web based learning source. A think-aloud experiment along with a pre- and post-test was conducted through a user study. The study findings revealed that the participants who played the mobile game were better able to identify fraudulent web sites compared to the participants who read the website without any training.

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