Leveraging the Effects of Cognitive Function on Input Device Analytics to Improve Security - July 2016

Public Audience
Purpose: To highlight project progress. Information is generally at a higher level which is accessible to the interested public. All information contained in the report (regions 1-3) is a Government Deliverable/CDRL.

PI(s):  David L. Roberts, Robert St. Amant
Researchers: Alok Goel, Ignacio X. Dominguez, Jayant Dhawan

HARD PROBLEM(S) ADDRESSED

• Human Behavior - Our work addresses understanding human behavior through observations of input device usage. The basic principles we are developing will enable new avenues for characterizing risk and identifying malicious (or accidental) uses of systems that lead to security problems. The ultimate goal of our work is the development of a novel class of security proofs that we call "Human Subtlety Proofs" (HSPs). HSPs combine the unobtrusiveness of Human Observational Proofs with the interactivity of Human Interactive Proofs, which hopefully will lead to more secure interactions.

PUBLICATIONS

ACCOMPLISHMENT HIGHLIGHTS

• We are making progress toward understanding the typing of short words/phrases at the detailed level of eye movements and key presses; we have also identified statistical patterns that are new to the typing literature, which have the potential to inform the creation of models of human typing in a security context.
• We have developed software for visualizing and exploring time series data of human performance, following the simple breakdown of the Model Human Processor into perceptual, motor, and cognitive processes. Such tools are helpful for generating and evaluating hypotheses, informally, and for understanding the details of user behavior relevant to cybersecurity.