University: Carleton University, School of Computer Science<br /><br />Supervisor: Dr. Elizabeth Stobert<br /><br />Presenter's bio: Aniqa Alam is a graduate student of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) at Carleton University. She has completed her Bachelor in Computer Science and ICT from the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh. Aniqa has research interests in usable security and privacy, user authentication, culture and security, and social factors in HCI.<br /><br />Title of poster: Etics and Emics of Usable Security: Culturally Universal or Culturally Specific?<br /><br />Abstract of the poster: Cultural attitudes and practices affect the design and usability of security software. Cultural differences cause users from eastern and western cultures to behave differently and sometimes insecurely with the same security tools because of dissimilar beliefs and understanding. “Emics-etics” is a cross-cultural framework that describes cultural differences based on the perspective of the viewers: those within the culture, and those outside the culture. We suggest that security tools need to be designed from an “emics” or insider perspective in order to understand and acknowledge the cultural factors that contribute to security. We examined three areas of security affected by cultural differences: password sharing, device sharing, and software piracy. We applied the “emics-etics” framework to identify problems resulting from cultural differences between east and west. We propose suggestions for how security software can be designed to create culturally appropriate security tools that acknowledge factors such as family sharing, gender norms, and infrastructural differences.