Creating Better Malware Warnings Through Psychology 85
msm1267 writes "Generic malware warnings that alert computer users to potential trouble are largely ineffective and often ignored. Researchers at Cambridge University, however, have proposed a change to the status quo, believing instead that warnings should be re-architected to include concrete, specific warnings that are not technical and rely less on fear than current alerts."
Too much repetition (Score:4, Insightful)
This is just based on my experience, but it seems like users are very quick to develop habits based on repetition. UAC is a good example, in that it doesn't take more than a few days to get used to clicking OK on the box that pops up when then screen fades out a little. Changing what the message says won't change that behavior.
Re:Hmmm ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Pretty hard to prevent when they can display arbitrary images. You'd have to do something they couldn't replicate, like personalizing it per user, or using a reserved part of the screen.
Trivial: just put a very obvious and different border around any dialog raised by the browser, like thick red and black hashing or something equally unsubtle. It's wouldn't solve every problem, but making it really obvious when it's a pop-up would help.
Or, better, just remove the whole horrible idea of pop-ups from the world of browsers. It solves a problem that no longer exists in tabbed browsing. Restrict web pages from opening anything but a new tab, and nothing of value will be lost.