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Snail Mail Beats Email Any Day: On Effective Operator Security Notifications in the Internet

Maass, Max ; Clement, Marc-Pascal ; Hollick, Matthias (2021)
Snail Mail Beats Email Any Day: On Effective Operator Security Notifications in the Internet.
ARES 2021: The 16th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security. Vienna, Austria (17.-20.08.2021)
doi: 10.1145/3465481.3465743
Konferenzveröffentlichung, Bibliographie

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Kurzbeschreibung (Abstract)

In the era of large-scale internet scanning, misconfigured websites are a frequent cause of data leaks and security incidents. Previous research has investigated sending automated email notifications to operators of insecure or compromised websites, but has often met with limited success due to challenges in address data quality, spam filtering, and operator distrust and disinterest. While several studies have investigated the design and phrasing of notification emails in a bid to increase their effectiveness, the use of other contact channels has remained almost completely unexplored due to the required effort and cost. In this paper, we investigate two methods to increase notification success: the use of letters as an alternative delivery medium, and the description of attack scenarios to incentivize remediation. We evaluate these factors as part of a notification campaign utilizing manually-collected address information from 1359 German website operators and focusing on unintentional information leaks from web servers. We find that manually collected addresses lead to large increases in delivery rates compared to previous work, and letters were markedly more effective than emails, increasing remediation rates by up to 25 percentage points. Counterintuitively, providing detailed descriptions of possible attacks can actually decrease remediation rates, highlighting the need for more research into how notifications are perceived by recipients.

Typ des Eintrags: Konferenzveröffentlichung
Erschienen: 2021
Autor(en): Maass, Max ; Clement, Marc-Pascal ; Hollick, Matthias
Art des Eintrags: Bibliographie
Titel: Snail Mail Beats Email Any Day: On Effective Operator Security Notifications in the Internet
Sprache: Englisch
Publikationsjahr: 2021
Ort: Darmstadt
Verlag: Association for Computing Machinery
Buchtitel: The 16th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security
Kollation: 13 Seiten
Veranstaltungstitel: ARES 2021: The 16th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security
Veranstaltungsort: Vienna, Austria
Veranstaltungsdatum: 17.-20.08.2021
DOI: 10.1145/3465481.3465743
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Kurzbeschreibung (Abstract):

In the era of large-scale internet scanning, misconfigured websites are a frequent cause of data leaks and security incidents. Previous research has investigated sending automated email notifications to operators of insecure or compromised websites, but has often met with limited success due to challenges in address data quality, spam filtering, and operator distrust and disinterest. While several studies have investigated the design and phrasing of notification emails in a bid to increase their effectiveness, the use of other contact channels has remained almost completely unexplored due to the required effort and cost. In this paper, we investigate two methods to increase notification success: the use of letters as an alternative delivery medium, and the description of attack scenarios to incentivize remediation. We evaluate these factors as part of a notification campaign utilizing manually-collected address information from 1359 German website operators and focusing on unintentional information leaks from web servers. We find that manually collected addresses lead to large increases in delivery rates compared to previous work, and letters were markedly more effective than emails, increasing remediation rates by up to 25 percentage points. Counterintuitively, providing detailed descriptions of possible attacks can actually decrease remediation rates, highlighting the need for more research into how notifications are perceived by recipients.

Freie Schlagworte: information leakage, web security, notification study
Sachgruppe der Dewey Dezimalklassifikatin (DDC): 000 Allgemeines, Informatik, Informationswissenschaft > 004 Informatik
Fachbereich(e)/-gebiet(e): 20 Fachbereich Informatik
20 Fachbereich Informatik > Sichere Mobile Netze
Hinterlegungsdatum: 02 Jul 2024 23:13
Letzte Änderung: 02 Jul 2024 23:13
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