Title
Mixed Pictures: Mental Models of Malware
Abstract
Malware is a serious problem for users, who become affected as a result of the decisions they make online. This paper presents a study examining mental models related to malware and regular software, in hopes of finding clues to that will help us understand what users know about malware, and what we can do to help them make better decisions online. The study involved two drawing tasks, where participants were asked to draw their understanding of how a word processor and malware work, respectively. Several concerning patterns emerged. Participants seemed to regard malware as a fundamentally different kind of entity than regular software. They make black-and-white distinctions between malware and regular software in terms of whether the software is helpful or harmful, who the software serves, and who controls it. Finally, participants showed lesser knowledge of malware compared to regular software.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1109/PST47121.2019.8949030
2019 17th International Conference on Privacy, Security and Trust (PST)
Keywords
Field
DocType
cybersecurity,malware,mental models
Internet privacy,Computer science,Drawing Tasks,Software,Malware
Conference
ISSN
ISBN
Citations 
2574-139X
978-1-7281-3266-2
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
8
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Eric Spero112.41
Milica Stojmenovic2105.61
Zahra Hassanzadeh300.34
Sonia Chiasson491958.49
Robert Biddle552845.50