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Towards an open-source web security survey applicable to university students

Abstract:

This work makes two contributions: (1) we propose the novel idea of using an open-source approach to writing surveys, and (2) we give a first step towards applying this approach in the context of surveying students about their web security literacy. Questions that interest us include: Does taking a course in security help students be more aware of the risks and vulnerabilities in their web browsing practices? When presented with a security warning, do they make the right decision? We present our results in designing and applying a survey on web security at a large university. We have released our survey instrument to the public domain and are in the process of getting other institutions to help refine the questions. We envision the following advantages of open-sourcing surveys: questions can be re-used at different institutions, results can be compared between institutions, and a world-wide community can collaborate and improve the quality of the survey instrument over time.