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Investigating the Computer Security Practices and Needs of Journalists

Authors: 

Susan E. McGregor, Columbia Journalism School; Polina Charters, Tobin Holliday, and Franziska Roesner, University of Washington

Abstract: 

Though journalists are often cited as potential users of computer security technologies, their practices and mental models have not been deeply studied by the academic computer security community. Such an understanding, however, is critical to developing technical solutions that can address the real needs of journalists and integrate into their existing practices. We seek to provide that insight in this paper, by investigating the general and computer security practices of 15 journalists in the U.S. and France via in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Among our findings is evidence that existing security tools fail not only due to usability issues but when they actively interfere with other aspects of the journalistic process; that communication methods are typically driven by sources rather than journalists; and that journalists’ organizations play an important role in influencing journalists’ behaviors. Based on these and other findings, we make recommendations to the computer security community for improvements to existing tools and future lines of research.

Susan E. McGregor, Columbia Journalism

Polina Charters, University of Washington

Tobin Holliday, University of Washington

Franziska Roesner, University of Washington

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BibTeX
@inproceedings {190976,
author = {Susan E. McGregor and Polina Charters and Tobin Holliday and Franziska Roesner},
title = {Investigating the Computer Security Practices and Needs of Journalists},
booktitle = {24th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 15)},
year = {2015},
isbn = {978-1-939133-11-3},
address = {Washington, D.C.},
pages = {399--414},
url = {https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity15/technical-sessions/presentation/mcgregor},
publisher = {USENIX Association},
month = aug,
}
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