Patterns
- Active Warnings
- Attractive Options
- Complete Delete
- Conveying Threats & Consequences
- Create a Security Lexicon
- Create Keys When Needed
- Delayed Unrecoverable Action
- Detailed Notifications About Security
- Direct Access to UI Components
- Disable by Default
- Disable of Services
- Disclose Significant Deviations
- Distinguish Between Run and Open
- Distinguish Internal Senders
- Distinguish Security Levels
- Email-Based Identification and Authentication
- Explicit Item Delete
- Explicit User Audit
- Failing Safely
- General Notifications About Security
- Immediate Notifications
- Immediate Options
- Indirect Access to UI Components
- Informative Dialogues
- Install Before Execute
- Key Continuity Management
- Levels of Severity
- Leverage Existing Identification
- Localization of Specific Areas
- Migrate and Backup Keys
- Noticeable Contextual Indicators
- Providing Recommendations
- Quick Description of UI Components
- Redundant Notifications
- Reset to Installation
- Restricted Areas Notification
- Security Features Used by the System
- Security Features Used by the User
- Send S/MIME-Signed Email
- Separating Content
- Sequential Access to UI Components
- Suggestive Dialogues
- System’s Security Tasks
- The Absence of Indicators
- Track Received Keys
- Track Recipients
- Warn When Unsafe
Patterns are based on scientific sources.
Usable Security Pattern - Active Warnings
Luigi Lo Iacono, Peter Nehren
December 21, 2015
Active Warnings
| Name | Active Warnings |
| Sources | (Egelman, 2009) |
| Synonyms | Keine |
| Context | Passive warning styles that do not interrupt the user may go unnoticed and thus be rendered useless. Likewise, a warning may be passive if it can be dismissed without the user taking notice of it. |
| Problem | Some warnings fail in very critical situations because they were not prominent enough for the user to notice them. |
| Solution | Active Warnings should be used to grab users’ attention by interrupting their primary tasks, thus forcing them to acknowledge the warnings by taking an action in order to proceed. |
| Examples |  Source: (Egelman, 2009) |
| Implementation | Active warnings must be designed to interrupt the primary task by either replacing the content users were expecting with the warning message, or by drawing attention away from the expected content. |
| Consequences | By interrupting users’ primary tasks and forcing them to make a decision, significantly more users paid attention to the warnings and were ultimately protected from the phishing attack. |
| Dependencies | None |
| Relationships | [Attractive Options] [Immediate Notifications] [Conveying Threats & Consequences] [General Notifications About Security] [Immediate Options] [Informative Dialogues] [Separating Content] [Failing Safely] |
| Principles | [Convenience] [Clarity] [Sichtbarkeit] |
| Guidelines | None |
| Check lists | None |
| Use cases | None |
| Tags | Active Warnings, Immediate Notifications, Warnings |
| Log history | [12/21/2015]: Added to repository |
References
Egelman, S., 2009. Trust me: Design patterns for constructing trustworthy trust indicators. ProQuest.