Cybersecurity | UCS

Four Contributions at SOUPS 2026

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In the paper “From Why to How: Negotiating Inquiry and Design in Human-Centered Security,” Sara Hahn, research associate at UCS, discusses points of friction in interdisciplinary collaboration between psychology, computer science, and human-centered security. She argues for recognizing a fundamental understanding of human behavior and motivations as a valuable research contribution in its own right.

In “One Root of the Frictions,” Prof. Dr. Andreas Heinemann and Nina Gerber describe the inherently interdisciplinary nature of Usable Privacy and Security research while pointing out that interdisciplinary elements have not yet been sufficiently incorporated into academic disciplines.

The two posters, “The PIONEER Project: A PrIvacy companion for mOtivatioN and knowlEdge transfER” by Althaus et al. and “Understanding the ‘Why’: Investigating the Design of Privacy Support Tools (PSTs) through the Lens of Psychological Needs” by Hahn et al., present work conducted within the PIONEER project. They focus on the development of a privacy support tool aimed at increasing users’ privacy awareness and motivation, and on the question of how Privacy Support Tools should be designed.

SOUPS (Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security) is an international scientific conference focusing on usable IT security and privacy at the intersection of computer science, psychology, and HCI. It will take place this year from August 23–26, 2026, in Hannover, Germany and the two position papers will be presented as part of the workshop “Human-Centred Security Meets Social Sciences: Mapping the Frictions”.

Unser Beitrag auf dem Usable Security and Privacy Workshop (MuC 2024)

Wed, 28 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Unser Beitrag “Pass auf! - Child-Oriented Cyber Safety & Security Educational Content” von Karen Bopp, Andreas Heinemann und Karen Renaud wird am 3. September auf dem 10. Usable Security und Privacy Workshop am KIT in Karlsruhe im Rahmen der Konferenz “Mensch und Computer 2024” vorgestellt.

Diese Arbeit basiert auf den Ergebnissen der Masterarbeit von Karen Bopp.

Cybersecurity Kids - Crossing the street online: An evaluation of learnability of age-appropriate educational content on cybersecurity & -safety

Mon, 17 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract

The Internet is full of false claims about supposedly effective preventive- and countermeasures to cybersafety and cybersecurity risks, and the majority of computer users are not well-informed on this topic. The average user utilizes the Internet to educate themselves and, among other things, to answer questions that their children ask. But when it comes to cybersecurity threats, there are plenty of risk measure recommendations on the Internet, which can be confusing. Of the few sites that provide practical measures, there are only a few that comply with current German standards. So, how are German adults (parents and teachers) supposed to qualitatively educate themselves, apply this knowledge and also pass it on to their children? Additionally, how are children, who may be just learning to research, supposed to get reliable cybersafety and cybersecurity knowledge?

This work creates a unified platform in which online risks and coherent recommendations on measures are presented in an age-appropriate manner. In doing so, the abilities of the children’s respective development level must be taken into account in order to create content that can be understood by all user groups (children, guardians, and teachers).

To this end, the informational and educational content will be embedded in a developed website, where the content will be communicated audiovisually to children and to adults in textual form. Practical examples, in the form of pictures, in order to facilitate constructivist learning, are given. Finally, the extent to which the content was able to influence the knowledge of adults and children in the field of cybersecurity risks is measured, by conducting a within-groups study consisting of two online surveys.

This study expands upon the work done by Renaud and Prior and uses the results obtained on risks and their age relevancies for children. Recommendations from numerous German ministries and government agencies were consulted to verify the accuracy and relevance of the proposed measures from the researched websites.