ABSTRACT
The intersection of the technical requirements for cryptography, and consumers’ desires for usability introduces a number of opportunities for security weaknesses to emerge within the design of security software. One of the key challenges in the development of secure software is the tradeoff between usability and security. Often, many of the rigorous requirements of a strong cryptographic implementation appear to be at odds with consumer requirements and desires. One of the main pieces of background work on the usability of security and cryptography was carried out on the Pretty Good Privacy email security product, highlighting the shortcomings of the software from the perspective of providing usable security. The password manager application investigated was published by developer of the photo and video encryption applications which used fixed encryption keys and parameters. One area worth consideration for new designs of security software is the authentication of ciphertexts.
