Conference & Journal Paper
Balancing Security and Usability in Encrypted Email
Wei Bai, Doowon Kim, Moses Namara, Yichen Qian, Patrick Gage Kelley, Michelle L. Mazurek
IEEE Internet Computing, 21(3):30–38, 2017
May 2017
Abstract
End-to-end encryption is the best way to protect digital messages. Historically, end-to-end encryption has been difficult for people to use, but recent tools have made it more broadly accessible, largely by employing key-directory services. These services sacrifice some security properties for convenience. A 52-person user study found that participants could learn to understand properties of different encryption models and make coherent assessments about when different tradeoffs might be appropriate. Participants recognized that a less-convenient key exchange model was more secure overall, but considered the key-directory approach to have security sufficient for most everyday purposes.
- encryption
- security
- usability
- messaging
Cite this paper
@inproceedings{bai2017balancing,
title = {Balancing Security and Usability in Encrypted Email},
author = {Bai, Wei and Kim, Doowon and Namara, Moses and Qian, Yichen and Kelley, Patrick Gage and Mazurek, Michelle L.},
year = {2017},
booktitle = {IEEE Internet Computing, 21(3):30–38, 2017},
url = {https://pgk.io/papers/2017-balancing-security-and-usability-in-encrypted-email/},
}