Researchers from across the United States as well as from countries including Korea, South Africa and Finland visited UD for the DeWald Roode Information Security Conference.

Information security innovators

Finding creative, fun answers to information security problems

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2:42 p.m., Oct. 14, 2015--The elements that make your favorite video games fun could one day help keep your data safe. 

This promising application of gamification – the introduction of game design elements outside of game contexts – was the subject of the Most Innovative Paper Award winner at the seventh annual DeWald Roode Information Systems Security Workshop, hosted this year by the University of Delaware’s Department of Accounting and MIS in the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics.

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In “Gamification as a Driver of Individual Information Security Behavior,” Jacques Ophoff from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, used game elements like badges, leaderboards and strength meters to help students choose stronger passwords.

“A lot of theories tend to deal with trying to persuade someone to change behavior by using fear or some deterrence mechanism,” Ophoff said. By contrast, gamification seeks to change users’ intrinsic motivation through positive incentives like increased engagement and enjoyment.

Ophoff’s study found that students who created passwords using gamification elements created significantly stronger passwords than students who received no feedback when creating passwords.

“We reconfirmed the importance of feedback loops, especially in password creation,” Ophoff said. “We’ve also shown that game elements can be used as effective feedback mechanisms.”

“Is it a matter of fact that people do not want to be at the bottom of a leaderboard, and that incentive to move yourself up a leaderboard can encourage more secure behavior?”

Ophoff said that this could have implications for user interface design, offering website creators more playful options to strengthen information security behavior in users.

John D’Arcy, UD associate professor of MIS and chair of this year’s DeWald Roode Workshop, said that Ophoff’s study “offered promise for gamification techniques, as opposed to the longstanding emphasis on strict organizational policies, as a means to motivate employees’ security conscious behavior.”

D’Arcy hosted a record number of 45 prominent information systems researchers as chair of the 2015 workshop. Participants came internationally from Korea, South Africa and Finland, as well domestically from colleges like the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Arizona and Boston College. 

Eighteen papers were presented in a collaborative, feedback-heavy setting over the course of the two-day workshop, which focused on insider threats to security.

During the workshop, Detmar Straub, who serves as the J. Mack Robinson Distinguished Professor of Information Systems at Georgia State University, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the participating members.

Merrill Warkentin, professor of information systems at Mississippi State University, founder of the workshop and chair of its associated IFIP Information Systems Security working group, received the Outstanding Leadership Award.

“There are some really innovative, creative research projects being presented here, some lively discussion about security threats and the things that organizations, companies and nations can do to ameliorate these threats,” Warkentin said.

Warkentin added that there are a variety of career opportunities available today for those interested in information security, as both organizations and individuals seek to keep themselves protected. 

“It’s a very hot area because the threats keep growing,” Warkentin said. “There are a lot of challenges and we need a lot of good people.”

D’Arcy said that this year’s workshop was a success and contributed to the working group’s mission of “boldly advancing the research discipline of information systems security.”

Article by Sunny Rosen

Photos by Wenbo Fan

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