Towards Integrating Human-Centered Cybersecurity Research Into Practice: A Practitioner Survey

Published

January 30, 2024

Author(s)

Julie Haney, Clyburn Cunningham, Susanne M. Furman

Abstract

The "research-practice gap" can prevent the appli- cation of valuable research insights into practice. While the gap has been studied in several fields, it is unclear if prior findings and recommendations apply to human-centered cybersecurity (HCC), which may have its own challenges due to the unique characteristics of the cybersecurity field. Overcoming the gap in HCC is especially important given the large role of human behavior in cybersecurity outcomes. As a starting point for understanding this potential gap, we conducted a survey of 152 cybersecurity practitioners. We found that, while participants see the value in and are eager to receive and integrate HCC insights, they experienced a number of challenges in doing so. Based on our results, we discuss implications of our results, including how we extend prior research-practice work and suggestions for how to better support practitioners in integrating HCC into their work.

Conference Dates

February 26, 2024

Conference Location

San Diego, CA, US

Conference Title

Workshop on Usable Security and Privacy (USEC)

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

cybersecurity, usability, human-centered, researchers, practitioners

Citation

Haney, J. , Cunningham, C. and Furman, S. (2024), Towards Integrating Human-Centered Cybersecurity Research Into Practice: A Practitioner Survey, Workshop on Usable Security and Privacy (USEC), San Diego, CA, US, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=957088 (Accessed December 31, 2024)