Implicit Learning With Certificate Warning Messages on Ssl Web Pages: What Are They Teaching?

Abstract

SSL-based web services are the most common technology in secure transactions on the Internet today. The security level of these services is inevitably related with that of digital certificates and user awareness. With the high number of nonconforming digital certificate usage, which eventually invokes warning messages on the Internet, users are implicitly forced to develop unsecure usage habits. In this study, we have studied the implicit learning effect of certificate warning messages on the SSL web pages. We have conducted two different experimental studies on university students and on instructors in IT departments. The results point to acquired indifference towards these warnings in users. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.