Social-scientific accompanying research

In the context of OpenSecurity, accompanying research is being carried out from a social science perspective. The aim is to analyse contextual aspects of IT-security, usability, privacy, and user acceptance.

For this purpose the consortium member LIquA, the Institute for Qualitative Analyses in Linz, has conducted an online survey with one of the project stakeholders, the City Administration of Linz, in May and June 2013. An online questionnaire with 41 questions was sent to a statistical population of 1.385 users. The questionnaire covered six topics: personal details, using IT within the city administration, private use of IT, importance of IT-security and IT-security behaviour, and IT-security versus usability, as well as attitude towards the introduction of new IT-security measures. An initial analysis has already shown that IT-security is very important for the surveyed employees (with a response rate of 32%).

Detailed analyses regarding password handling, usage of data encryption, or concern for data corruption delivered further interesting insights. The results have also delivered timely additional input for the design of OpenSecurity services. In order to consolidate the results, additional qualitative interviews have been conducted with individual IT managers within the City Administration of Linz and at two other public stakeholders.

Currently the team is working on a third level of analysis by going through a number of studies, papers, and experience reports from the domain of IT-Security and Usability. As a next step the team will issue a potential-analysis from a social science perspective, in which the potential opportunties and risks for the implementation of an OpenSecurity-based solution at stakeholder institutions will be elaborated.