Currently working on two new books

• Understanding Cybersecurity Technologies. With CRC Press

• Smart and Intelligent System, with CRC Press

Current Research 

• Trust in News and Information in Social Media

New Book

Cyber Security Awareness Among College Students

Cybersecurity Awareness Among Students and Faculty
In modern times, all individuals need to be knowledgeable about cybersecurity. They must have practical skills and abilities to protect themselves in cyberspace. What is the level of awareness among college students and faculty, who represent the most technologically active portion of the population in any society?

Human Computer Interaction and Cyber Security

Book 

Human-Computer Interaction in Cyber Security Handbook, published by CRC Press

In today’s digital age, what is now called cyber security, or information technology security, focuses on protecting computers from criminal behavior. Cyber wars among countries, organizations and people will soon become a common event. Consequently, cyber security is becoming one of the most important issues for every person, group, organization or entity to deal with.

According to Gartner, global spending on IT security reached $77 billion in 2015, an increase of 4.7% over 2014. Estimates are that global spending on Information Security will hit $101 billion in 2018.

The “human agent” is at the center of all security systems and is consequently at the center of all security research. Some people refer to human agents or users as the “weakest link in the security chain”. According to IBM Security, 95 percent of all security incidents involve human error. Thus, the understanding of human performance, capability and behavior must be one of the main areas that experts in cyber security focus on, both from a human computer interaction point of view and a pure human factors perspective.

My examination of 25 educational programs in the cyber security area revealed that the educational programs are only offered to postgraduates in the U.S. Moreover, among all these programs only one institution offers a course on “Human Factors and Managing Risk”, and even this course is not a full human factors course.

According to a report by Burning Glass International Inc., a Boston-based company, the demand for cyber security experts is growing at 12 times the rate of the overall job market.

Concrete or Abstract User Interface?

User interaction with computers is now a constant in our lives, an active part of our daily routines. We are not only using computers to perform tasks but also for common instances working through remote Internet access to control devices such as home securities devices, camera surveillance, and temperature light controls. All users, from young to old, count on user interface to work for them in helping them successfully complete their essential tasks. One of the issues that has been observed is how the interface should be designed so that it properly reflects how users want to view the devices they are remotely managing. The question comes up as to what kind of mental image should the design trigger when a user views the user interface? The knowledge as to how this mental image matches the real concept of user interface is key to creating a capable design.

About Home Networking Devices Location & Features

Abstract. A home. It is where people spend most of their family time. It is a place to gather friends. It is somewhere to escape the world in the comfort of someplace that is our own. And it is a location that is filled with a variety of big and small appliances and devices. The number of appliances, their size, shape, and their features change over and over again, and based on the advancement in technology, there are changes in the needs of consumers alongside a certain expectation of comfort and productivity. One of the properties of a device in a home is the location in which people place it. Where to place the device depends, among other things, on its use and the features that the device offers as well as its aesthetics. This study investigates the location of home networking devices, also known as routers, in modern houses. It also looks at how router features accommodate users based on the location where people keep the devices and how their needs have evolved.

For this study, 95 participants were surveyed about the location of their home networking devices (routers) location then, 43 locations were evaluated from houses located in Silicon Valley, California. The results provide the data on the rooms where people keep their routers, their physical location, and certain idiosyncrasies of their usage. In light of this study we have extracted some results and hypothesized some guidelines for future designs of routers in the consumer market.

Paper published and presented at the HCI International Conference 2013, and 214

Research Home Networking Usability

In today’s life, an Internet connection in a home can be considered a utility like a telephone or even to some degree electricity. Not having an efficient home network is like having just one electrical outlet in the whole house versus having outlets throughout the house and being able to plug in all your appliances at once any time you want. Networking devices from wireless routers to storage, to digital media receivers and so on, are more and more available on the market and their speed and quality of reception constantly improves. Despite these hardware improvements, the software parts that enable users to interact and manage the extended functionality of these devices are still very complicated and out of reach for average home users.

In the competitive market of networking device manufacturing companies, limited resources are allocated to improve the ease of use of the user interfaces (UIs) where users interact with the devices on a daily basis.

This research focuses on the main issues in home network software usability, based on survey results and empirical observation, and investigate a new generation of tasked-based user interfaces enabling home networking users to easily set up and interact with their devices.

Publication and presentation July 2012- the AHFEI 2012 conference

Research Completed

About Authentication, Security, Password Re-set Features and Users Behaviors in using Web Application

Accessing web applications is now a part of every individual's daily life. To access the right location, users must point their browser to the right area (page) and then authenticate themselves with a user ID and password. Even though this process seems easy in theory, it is not as simple in reality. Many studies that investigate the authenticating and security features from different angles examine different problems: entering the wrong URL, phishing detection, and the user’s behavior and vulnerability in making sound judgments. Other studies focus on Online accounts and users' password management strategies, and investigate users' models of attacks and attackers, which help provide context for their security. The certificate validation method evaluates it all in regard to website authentication measures.

In light of these studies and to improve the security, web applications now use several features in order to address forgotten passwords and ID re-sets. These functions consist of providing a user with a self-reset password and user UI, and then requiring them to answer several security questions. If they are answered correctly, the password is sent through email to the email address on file. Then the user must utilize that temporary link or password to login and change the password.

This study investigates user behavior from three perspectives:

• How users make sure that the sites they are using are safe and reliable.
• How users deal with forgotten passwords.
• How reliable and secure are the security questions asked to authenticate users.

First Publication July 2011