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posted by
martyb
on Sunday November 08 2015, @02:06PM
from the Wbuaal-qbrf-abg-rira-haqrefgnaq-EBG13 dept.
from the Wbuaal-qbrf-abg-rira-haqrefgnaq-EBG13 dept.
This paper presents the results of a laboratory study involving Mailvelope, a modern PGP client that integrates tightly with existing webmail providers. In our study, we brought in pairs of participants and had them attempt to use Mailvelope to communicate with each other. Our results shown that more than a decade and a half after "Why Johnny Can't Encrypt," modern PGP tools are still unusable for the masses. We finish with a discussion of pain points encountered using Mailvelope, and discuss what might be done to address them in future PGP systems.
The PDF of the study can be found here.
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Why Johnny Still Can't Encrypt: Evaluating the Usability of a Modern PGP Client
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Can anyone remember when the times were not hard, and money not scarce?
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday November 08 2015, @06:19PM
I've set up GPG on my email client and for everyone in my office, but if I didn't set it up, there is no way in hell they would have been able to figure it out. Seriously, introducing the average user to encryption is only slightly easier than introducing it to your cat. But some of that is the fault of the software providers -- for example, the openGPG packages for Mac had an upgrading bug where a user would get an upgrade message, click OK, it would look like something happened, and then the whole thing failed to function afterwards. My business partner was a hair's breadth away from insisting we quit using encryption. I fixed it -- just required downloading the software and reinstalling -- and then it happened again a few weeks later. I managed to keep our business emails encrypted, but there was some huge resistance. Without my stubbornness though, we wouldn't be encrypting anything -- we wouldn't even have set up GPG in the first place.