A lot of security on your computer happens in the background, without you being aware of it. Midnight Windows security updates, background anti-virus scans, malware resistance, processes monitoring – so-called silent security. Don’t you want to be in control? Don’t you want to know what your computer does to protect you?
A few weeks ago INFORMS, the largest professional society in the world for professionals in the fields of operations research, management science, and analytics, have published an article on a research conducted by Brigham Young University, USA, in partnership with Google. Series of experiments were conducted. The results show that almost 90 % of participants ignore security warnings and other alerts, while we’re busy performing a task. Specifically, 74 % of users ignored security warning that popped up while closing a web browser window, 79 % ignored messages when they were watching a video, and 87 % ignored a pop-up concentrating on a predetermined task.
Researchers claim that our brain does not handle multitasking well. So in order to complete the task things that are irrelevant to the task are being filtered out. If the warnings become increasingly persuasive it will not necessarily result in dedicated user’s attention. Yet, it does result in reduced neural activity, which means loss of concentration and slower performance.
As a result, you are not only failing to complete your task as efficiently as you could. Security that relies on your approval is being disabled as well, as you disregard its notifications.
So next time you curse Windows silent security and its midnight updates – blame yourself. Or, here is a better suggestion: don’t blame yourself. Call us, Bits and PCs, London Computer Repair and IT Support service, and we will take care of your security.
