4. The Human Factor

Abstract

In this chapter we derive the working hypothesis for the book: human failures are a major reason for security breaches in IT Systems. It seems to be inevitable that human will make errors - especially in such complex situations such as the development of software. Thereby, we follow a two-step approach. Firstly, we examine two selected case studies which have in common that they are both new application domains and that well-known errors are made again. The reasons can be found in failures in all phases of a system’s life-cycle (e.g. design, implementation, operation). Secondly, we provide analogies to cognitive psychology in order to clarify the human limitations in characteristic situations. Before we summarize and conclude this chapter, we refer to related work that also focuses on the human factor.