TY - GEN

T1 - “Would You Give the Same Priority to the Bank and a Game? I Do Not!”

T2 - 19th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security, SOUPS 2023

AU - Amft, Sabrina

AU - Höltervennhoff, Sandra

AU - Huaman, Nicolas

AU - Acar, Yasemin

AU - Fahl, Sascha

N1 - Funding Information We thank all participants for their valuable time and insights shared with us. Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemein-schaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy - EXC 2092 CASA – 390781972.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Password managers allow users to improve password security by handling large numbers of strong and unique passwords without the burden of memorizing them. While users are encouraged to add all credentials to their password manager and update weak credentials, this task can require significant effort and thus jeopardize security benefits if not completed thoroughly. However, user strategies to add credentials, related obstacles, and their security implications are not well understood. To address this gap in security research, we performed a mixed-methods study, including expert reviews of 14 popular password managers and an online survey with 279 users of built-in and third-party password managers. We extend previous work by examining the status quo of password manager setup features and investigating password manager users’ setup strategies. We confirm previous research and find that many participants utilize password managers for convenience, not as a security tool. They most commonly add credentials whenever a website is visited, and prioritize what they add. Similarly, passwords are often only updated when they are considered insecure. Additionally, we observe a severe distrust towards password managers, leading to users not adding important passwords. We conclude our work by giving recommendations for password manager developers to help users overcome the obstacles we identified.

AB - Password managers allow users to improve password security by handling large numbers of strong and unique passwords without the burden of memorizing them. While users are encouraged to add all credentials to their password manager and update weak credentials, this task can require significant effort and thus jeopardize security benefits if not completed thoroughly. However, user strategies to add credentials, related obstacles, and their security implications are not well understood. To address this gap in security research, we performed a mixed-methods study, including expert reviews of 14 popular password managers and an online survey with 279 users of built-in and third-party password managers. We extend previous work by examining the status quo of password manager setup features and investigating password manager users’ setup strategies. We confirm previous research and find that many participants utilize password managers for convenience, not as a security tool. They most commonly add credentials whenever a website is visited, and prioritize what they add. Similarly, passwords are often only updated when they are considered insecure. Additionally, we observe a severe distrust towards password managers, leading to users not adding important passwords. We conclude our work by giving recommendations for password manager developers to help users overcome the obstacles we identified.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85179852730&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://edocs.tib.eu/files/e01mr23/1865754641.pdf

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:85179852730

SP - 171

EP - 190

BT - Proceedings of the Nineteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS 2023)

Y2 - 7 August 2023 through 8 August 2023

ER -