Measuring Security Practices.

Users are encouraged to adopt a wide array of technologies and behaviors to reduce their security risk. However, the adoption of these "best practices," ranging from the use of antivirus products to keeping software updated, is not well understood, nor is their practical impact on security risk well...

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Published in:Communications of the ACM Vol. 65; no. 9; pp. 93 - 103
Main Authors: DeKoven, Louis F., Randall, Audrey, Mirian, Ariana, Akiwate, Gautam, Blume, Ansel, Saul, Lawrence K., Schulman, Aaron, Voelker, Geoffrey M., Savage, Stefan
Format: Article
Published: Association for Computing Machinery Sep2022
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Measuring Security Practices.
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          DeKoven, Louis F.
          Randall, Audrey
          Mirian, Ariana
          Akiwate, Gautam
          Blume, Ansel
          Saul, Lawrence K.
          Schulman, Aaron
          Voelker, Geoffrey M.
          Savage, Stefan
        affil: University of California, San Diego, CA, USA
      su:
        Computer network security
        Antivirus software
        Best practices
        Software upgrades
        Computer users
        Privacy
        Computer software
        Computer operating systems
      sug:
        subj:
          Computer network security
          Antivirus software
          Best practices
          Software upgrades
          Computer users
          Privacy
          Computer software
          Computer operating systems
      ab: Users are encouraged to adopt a wide array of technologies and behaviors to reduce their security risk. However, the adoption of these "best practices," ranging from the use of antivirus products to keeping software updated, is not well understood, nor is their practical impact on security risk well established. To explore these issues, we conducted a large-scale measurement of 15,000 computers over six months. We use passive monitoring to infer and characterize the prevalence of various security practices as well as a range of other potentially security-relevant behaviors. We then explore the extent to which differences in key security behaviors impact the real-world outcomes (i.e., that a device shows clear evidence of having been compromised).
      pubtype: Periodical
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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