Change Policy or Users? Mitigating the Security Risks of Thermal Attacks

Macdonald, S. A. , Farzand, H., Alotaibi, N. , Islam, M. S. and Khamis, M. (2023) Change Policy or Users? Mitigating the Security Risks of Thermal Attacks. In: 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23), Hamburg, Germany, 23-28 Apr 2023,

Abstract

Attacks on passwords by thermal cameras are a poignant example of how emerging technologies can pose unforeseen security risks. Despite being easy to perform and effective, thermal attacks are not commonly understood or counteracted, hence a strategy to mitigate this is required. In this paper, we propose an AI-driven strategy to obfuscate vulnerable interfaces in the view of thermal cameras automatically, then discuss the advantages and limitations of attempting to enforce such a system-centred solution as policy, versus instead attempting to shape user behaviour.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the EPSRC (EP/V008870/1), and the PETRAS National Centre of Excellence for IoT Systems Cybersecurity, which is also funded by the EPSRC (EP/S035362/1).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Alotaibi, Norah Mohsen T and Islam, Mr Md Shafiqul and Macdonald, Mr Shaun and Khamis, Dr Mohamed and Farzand, Ms Habiba
• Authors: Macdonald, S. A., Farzand, H., Alotaibi, N., Islam, M. S., and Khamis, M.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering; College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Design x Policy Workshop 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23)
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

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Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
310627		TAPS: Assessing, Mitigating and Raising Awareness of the Security and Privacy Risks of Thermal Imaging	Mohamed Khamis	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	EP/V008870/1	Computing Science
313490		Preventing THErmal ATtacks using AI-driven Approaches	Mohamed Khamis	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	5676417	Computing Science