Human-Computer Interaction for Security Research: The Case of EU E-Banking Systems

Brief Description. This short paper highlights the interaction between security and usability in e-banking security and presents objectives and difficulties for studies in this field. E-Banking has undoubtedly become a key element in every modern bank's service portfolio during the last two decades. With its initial focus primarily on transactions, e-banking has now progressed towards an advanced online sales channel for financial products and most of today's e-banking platforms will be able to reproduce almost all services offered in bank branches [1]. But not only the strategic and commercial sides of e-banking have developed very far, also the e-banking security countermeasures employed have passed through several development stages, e.g. from simple password systems to sophisticated two-factor authentication approaches [4]. While the described innovation should generally be viewed as a positive one, current e-banking systems still show large failings in terms of their security and usability. These weaknesses are for example evident in a persistently high number of fraud cases for online banking, accounting for £46. The risk posed by banking fraud may also lead to a growing negative public perception or fear shown by customers. Alongside these security issues, some severe usability drawbacks can be observed in modern e-banking systems. While some of these may be related to the actual user interface design, a range of problems arise at system stages such as registration or business continuity. System lock outs or erroneously blocked transactions, like Barclaycard's fraud detection system flagging payments for London 2012 Olympic tickets as suspicious and declining them, are incomprehensible and frustrating to users. There are a range of similar cases, such as mentioned in [5] where card reader usability impedes security or in [6] where users prefer less secure solutions due to their apparently higher usability.