This thesis is built on the hypothesis that the average computer user has very little understanding regarding computer intrusion. Due to the prevalence of computers in our day and age, the prospect of users lacking even basic knowledge regarding something a user is at risk of encountering almost daily is worrying. This thesis presents the discrepancies between how computer intrusion occurs and how the average user believes computer intrusion occurs. It does this by conducting a series of qualitative interviews with interviewees having wide ranges of experience and knowledge regarding computer intrusion, quantifying their answers, and comparing the data to existing statistics on the topic. This thesis found that the average user does indeed understand very little about computer intrusion. When asked how they believe it occurs, they in general either gave very vague answers and were unable to elaborate, or gave answers that correspond to a movie or TV show stereotype of computer hacking, with nerdy hackers rapidly tapping on their keyboards causing their computer screens to flash with bright colors and fancy graphics. Furthermore, this thesis also found that even in users who had extensive experience working within IT or with computing, a clear lack of knowledge in many areas could be observed. Additionally, this thesis also managed to reach some additional interesting conclusions based on the data gathered that were not originally the goal of the survey, such as the fact that many users seem to be far more susceptible to phising on social media as compared to email, and that users completely misunderstand the motives of people who perform computer intrusion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-130996 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Mohajer Soltani, Aria |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för datavetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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