A Comparative Study to Evaluate the Usability of Context-Based Wi-Fi Access Mechanisms

This paper presents a comparative study of six different tag and context based authentication schemes for open Wi-Fi access. All of the implemented methods require only a smartphone and an HTML5 capable webbrowser, making them interchangeable and easy to incorporate into existing infrastructure. We recruited 22 participants for the study and used two standardized questionnaires as well as additional metrics to assess whether further investment in a systematic usability analysis seems prudent. The evaluation shows that suitable alternatives for Wi-Fi authentication exist and points out their limitations and opportunities.

[1]  Srdjan Capkun,et al.  Influence of user perception, security needs, and social factors on device pairing method choices , 2010, SOUPS.

[2]  Michael Hauber,et al.  jActivity: supporting mobile web developers with HTML5/JavaScript based human activity recognition , 2013, MUM.

[3]  Alessandro Puiatti,et al.  Proceedings of the 14th EAI International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking and Services , 2013, Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.

[4]  Gregory D. Abowd,et al.  Ubicomp 2001: Ubiquitous Computing , 2001, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[5]  It Informatics.  Wi-Fi Protected Setup , 2012 .

[6]  A. W. Roscoe,et al.  Usability and security of out-of-band channels in secure device pairing protocols , 2009, SOUPS.

[7]  Andreas Holzinger,et al.  HCI and Usability for Education and Work, 4th Symposium of the WG HCI&UE of the OCG Austrian Computer Society, USAB 2008, LNCS 5298 , 2008 .

[8]  Patrick Brézillon,et al.  Modeling and Using Context , 1999, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[9]  René Mayrhofer,et al.  Shake Well Before Use: Authentication Based on Accelerometer Data , 2007, Pervasive.

[10]  J. B. Brooke,et al.  SUS: A 'Quick and Dirty' Usability Scale , 1996 .

[11]  Bernt Schiele,et al.  Smart-Its Friends: A Technique for Users to Easily Establish Connections between Smart Artefacts , 2001, UbiComp.

[12]  Matthias Budde,et al.  Point & control -- interaction in smart environments: you only click twice , 2013, UbiComp.

[13]  Matthias Budde,et al.  Using a 2DST waveguide for usable, physically constrained out-of-band Wi-Fi authentication , 2013, UbiComp.

[14]  Martin Schrepp,et al.  User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) Benchmark. Praxiserfahrungen zur Auswertung und Anwendung von UEQ-Erhebungen im Business-Umfeld , 2013, UP.

[15]  Virpi Roto,et al.  Usable Access Control inside Home Networks , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks.

[16]  Joseph Bonneau,et al.  What's in a Name? , 2020, Financial Cryptography.

[17]  Srinivasan Seshan,et al.  Geo-fencing: Confining Wi-Fi Coverage to Physical Boundaries , 2009, Pervasive.

[18]  Yusheng Ji,et al.  PINtext: A Framework for Secure Communication Based on Context , 2011, MobiQuitous.

[19]  Yusheng Ji,et al.  Entropy of Audio Fingerprints for Unobtrusive Device Authentication , 2011, CONTEXT.

[20]  Martin Schrepp,et al.  Construction and Evaluation of a User Experience Questionnaire , 2008, USAB.

[21]  Ersin Uzun,et al.  Usability Analysis of Secure Pairing Methods , 2007, Financial Cryptography.

[22]  TsudikGene,et al.  A comparative study of secure device pairing methods , 2009 .

[23]  Uwe Hansmann,et al.  Pervasive Computing , 2003 .

[24]  Daniel B. Faria,et al.  No Long-term Secrets : Location-based Security in Overprovisioned Wireless LANs , 2004 .