DS92 461
DS92 461
https://doi.org/10.21278/idc.2018.0461
Abstract
As more mobile sensing devices are introduced in the market, the risks associated with cybersecurity
increase. Our research goal is to shed light on novice designers’ awareness to these risks with a focus
on the sensing device design. We coded qualitative data from design thinking student teams at the
University of California, Berkeley to see how carefully they took data vulnerability of their created
solutions into account. The results reveal that novice design students did not pay much attention to the
data vulnerability of their new solutions, in spite of numerous prompts for them to do so.
Keywords: human centred design, design practice, design education, cybersecurity, data
vulnerability
1. Introduction
As consumer mobile sensing (Choudhury et al., 2008) and robotic technologies mature (e.g., Jibo, 2017;
Amazon Echo and Alexa, 2017; iPatrol, 2017; Google Home Mini: Seifert, 2017; Sony Aibo, 2017), it
is anticipated that robots will operate in the vicinity of humans, thus directly interacting with them on a
wide range of tasks in domestic settings including cleaning, climate control, monitoring, education,
entertainment, healthcare (Kemp et al., 2007). Co-robots (collaborative robots that are designed to
collaborate with people) will become part of our daily life in the near future and they will play important
roles in human society. For example, in the field of autonomous vehicles, manufactures in Silicon Valley
are studying how co-robot cars will be communicating with drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and other
cars by utilizing rather simple yet useful prototypes (Said and Baker, 2017). Mobile sensing and co-
robots are emerging technologies that are predicted to have exponential growth in the market (Kumar,
2017; Tao, 2017). To accomplish their tasks, such co-robots, as well as personal digital devices, may
need to collect sensitive information about users or their environments. In this context, it would be
problematic if co-robots are hacked or otherwise compromised.
Security and privacy risks can be significantly high when it comes to vulnerable populations such as
those with lower educational levels or lower socioeconomic status users (Redmiles et al., 2017) and
children where the effectiveness of existing cybersecurity awareness campaigns to foster secure user
behaviours is questionable (Bada et al., 2014; Lomas, 2018). Many examples of careless user behaviour
can be found regarding security practices in private and public institutions such as utility providers,
public schools and even during the USA election (Denning et al., 2009; Lee et al., 2015; Jensen et al.,
2016). Furthermore, children can be more vulnerable and careless, as they do not have a fully mature
understanding on data security yet; they do not know how vulnerable it is to share their private data
(e.g., pictures, videos, or message logs) with others (Hurst, 2018).
2. Research method
The goal of this research is to shed light on the awareness of cybersecurity among novice designers as
well as gain insights into the challenges associated with increasing this awareness among both designers
and users in order to secure safety of private data in future connected products. This preliminary study
approached this topic from an explorative perspective using a summer design course at the University
of California at Berkeley as a case study with interventions throughout the course. The course
description, the participants, and the interventions from the teaching staff are described below.
Furthermore, the data used for the analyses covering the final products as well as milestone presentations
are described.
Table 2. Prompts made to the student design teams over the course
Description
st
1 prompt Design challenge announcement
The first prompt was made in the design challenge announcement by the invited project
sponsor, who was leading a cybersecurity research project, in the first week of the
course. The announcement included: 1) Introduction of the design challenge, 2)
Showing examples of commercial mobile co-robots, 3) Sample questions students
should address, and 4) Possible target markets/populations.
3.2. Results
In evaluating the reports, the intensity of the attention to data vulnerability was determined by the
teaching staff (the course instructor and teaching assistants) in columns 4-9 (Table 3). Three levels of
ratings (low-, med-, or high) were used to codify both the frequency and intensity of words associated
with cybersecurity.
Although the student teams demonstrated creative and innovative ideas around design opportunities
associated with mobile sensing, they failed to account for possible security risks associated with their
solutions. Most teams focussed on creating technological solutions to problems their potential customers
expressed, but little, if any, focussed on data security around the use of these products. Our observations
support findings from previous research (Bada et al., 2014) that most current cybersecurity campaigns
have not led to improved cybersecurity behaviour change. Similar assumptions may apply to the
designers whose primary role is to produce solutions that better serve users with advanced functions and
experience, but not to develop adequately secured solutions unless security itself was the goal of the
product.
3.2.2. Comparative research across different user populations, different application areas
We found a need to investigate different levels of awareness and thresholds of the technology adaption
by different demographic groups and different application areas. As technologies are advancing and
providing more benefits to users over time, the application areas of co-robotics and mobile sensing will
be growing and broadening, just like the variety of new solutions that student teams came up with over
the six-week design challenge: a smart home trashcan, a smart medical pill box, a social app targeted to
international students, AR safety lights on campus, improved transportation and a smart fire alarm for
disabled users. We are investigating whether there are underlying and/or distinct types of data security
risks on new product offerings across different user populations (e.g., college students, young
professionals, elderly, parents with children, etc.) and different application areas (e.g., personal, social,
medical, productive, etc.). One example from our preliminary research, revealed that children were more
4. Recommendations
6. Conclusions
Our exploratory research was aimed at understanding how much novice designers are aware of the risk
associated with the cybersecurity throughout the design process: Research-Analysis-Ideate-Build-
Communicate. As an experimental phase, we track the design process that novice design student teams
in the summer course 2017 offered at UC Berkeley had gone through to see how much they carefully
took data vulnerability of their created solutions into account. The results revealed that novice design
students did not pay much attention to the data vulnerability of the new solutions that they created, in
spite of numerous prompts for them to do so. They also failed to adequately understand potential
customer and stakeholder sensitivity to cybersecurity issues in their design process. These observations
led to the conclusion that we need to further investigate the trade-offs between ease of use and
cybersecurity around new product development and how it varies across different user populations and
application areas. Design guidelines and curricular material need to be developed with a focus on two
populations: (1) targeted vulnerable users and (2) future product designers to secure long-term effects.
The goal is to contribute to not only the cybersecurity community, but also product design, development,
and manufacturer communities who are dealing with personalized data manipulation in the creation of
personal products and services.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank students who participated in our cybersecurity design challenge in the design
thinking class offered by the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation at UC Berkeley, Summer 2017. This research
was partially supported by the CLTC (The Center for Long-term Cybersecurity) seed Grant 2017 at UC Berkeley.