Usability of authentication mechanisms in secure messaging applications

Abstract

Today, the increasing popularity of instant messaging applications has introduced some security measures. One of these security measures is the authentication activity that users need to make. Authentication in instant messaging applications means verifying that someone is messaging with the right person. In studies conducted to date, users are not able to achieve full success in authentication activities. Therefore, in the four popular instant messaging applications, we conducted the authentication of the authentication key and the change of the authentication key and the user interaction with two different groups of 66 participants. Participants in the first group consisted of 18 participants who worked in the information sector and had no information security knowledge. Participants in the second group consist of 48 university students taking information security course. In the first phase, users were expected to compare the authentication keys. In the second phase, we investigated how users assessed it when the authentication key changed. We observed that, although the participants know that they need to authenticate the other user, they can ignore the authentication process.