3 ms·

Fake popup study sadly confirms most users are idiots

10 points by raghus 18y ago

tptacek 18y ago
Yeah, I'm thinking the problem with malware that's installable from a click on a dialog box that can paint itself similarly to an OS dialog? Might not be the users.
- Tichy 18y ago
  In general, there is no such malware, so the experiment is complete nonsense in my opinion. If there was such a malware, that is, if there was a temporary bug in the browser allowing such a thing, then the dealing with the dialog boxes would just be an illusion of security. Any other innocent looking thing could screw you over just as well. I think the users were just used to stupid looking popups (what has the advertising industry not tried yet?) and did the right thing by removing or ignoring them.
iigs 18y ago
Apple has pretty much used the original Apple Human Interface Guidelines documents for toilet paper (there are three or four different title bar types in OS X), and Microsoft has even moved the IE6 malware warning dialogs around in a service pack (SP2, security enhancements, moving the warnings into the yellow bar in the top of the renderable space). It's mind bogglingly stupid and completely inexcusable. We, as the leaders, experts, and geeks of the community have failed to demand verifiable, non-forgeable desktop experiences for critical steps, instead electing to say "tee hee hee, this idiot didn't notice the HAND POINTER! how stupid, i'd never do that!" Remember Windows 98? Active Desktop? Underlined filenames on icons and single click to execute? Yep. Hand pointer on mouseover. We're the idiots, not them. edit: arrgh, i just looked. This single click thing is still in XP. Tools -> Folder Options, it's right on the first screen. <frustration> lakjflkwjlewijlewfjljk</frustration>
zby 18y ago
Well - just put yourself into the shoes of the students - you get some minimal money to go through this boring review - would you not assume that preparing the machine and securing it is the experimenters task? Would you not just go through the excercise with minimal thinking effort?
ars 18y ago
This study has a big hole: It wasn't their machine, plus they were told which sites to go to, so they assumed they were safe. Also those who moved away the dialog did the right thing: it's not their machine, they should leave the dialog there for the admin to take care of.
Tichy 18y ago
I don't understand: where is the problem with clicking on those popups? What would the apropriate reaction have been? If the browser is implemented correctly, it should be impossible to create a problem by clicking on those popups. The only popup one musn't click is the "install software, OK?" popup, but that wasn't among the fakes.

10 points by raghus 18y ago

Yeah, I'm thinking the problem with malware that's installable from a click on a dialog box that can paint itself similarly to an OS dialog? Might not be the users.

Tichy 18y ago
In general, there is no such malware, so the experiment is complete nonsense in my opinion. If there was such a malware, that is, if there was a temporary bug in the browser allowing such a thing, then the dealing with the dialog boxes would just be an illusion of security. Any other innocent looking thing could screw you over just as well. I think the users were just used to stupid looking popups (what has the advertising industry not tried yet?) and did the right thing by removing or ignoring them.

iigs 18y ago

Apple has pretty much used the original Apple Human Interface Guidelines documents for toilet paper (there are three or four different title bar types in OS X), and Microsoft has even moved the IE6 malware warning dialogs around in a service pack (SP2, security enhancements, moving the warnings into the yellow bar in the top of the renderable space). It's mind bogglingly stupid and completely inexcusable. We, as the leaders, experts, and geeks of the community have failed to demand verifiable, non-forgeable desktop experiences for critical steps, instead electing to say "tee hee hee, this idiot didn't notice the HAND POINTER! how stupid, i'd never do that!" Remember Windows 98? Active Desktop? Underlined filenames on icons and single click to execute? Yep. Hand pointer on mouseover. We're the idiots, not them. edit: arrgh, i just looked. This single click thing is still in XP. Tools -> Folder Options, it's right on the first screen. <frustration> lakjflkwjlewijlewfjljk</frustration>

zby 18y ago

Well - just put yourself into the shoes of the students - you get some minimal money to go through this boring review - would you not assume that preparing the machine and securing it is the experimenters task? Would you not just go through the excercise with minimal thinking effort?

ars 18y ago

This study has a big hole: It wasn't their machine, plus they were told which sites to go to, so they assumed they were safe. Also those who moved away the dialog did the right thing: it's not their machine, they should leave the dialog there for the admin to take care of.

Tichy 18y ago

I don't understand: where is the problem with clicking on those popups? What would the apropriate reaction have been? If the browser is implemented correctly, it should be impossible to create a problem by clicking on those popups. The only popup one musn't click is the "install software, OK?" popup, but that wasn't among the fakes.