Ignoring the Warnings

This post is part of the jProgr.com translation series.

Why do users ignore these Warning?

I was really surprised today to see how a user completely a very critical and serious warning.

By pure chance I passed by and saw the warning on the screen, my first thought was that he/she would return, or would go to Google. But I was astonished to see the degree of irresponsibility, such was my surprise that I could not help myself in telling the user to immediately leave from that site, and I'm not the type to speak to just anyone. Eventually the user left the site.

The person in question was someone I know and whose computer I have fixed several times, but I just could not help but comment that such warnings should be taken very seriously and it's not something that should be ignored like the Blue Screen of Death. I might have behaved somewhat intrusive but my expression was such that I could not help

I got to talking with the user and was told that these "windows" had popped up before, or in the users words "these type of windows pop up all of the time". After making it clear what those warnings were, I though to myself What would make a user ignore these warnings?

The person I'm speaking of is not someone completely ignorant of computer security: this person knows of viruses and understands the hazards (and well), known of malware and to always keep your antivirus updated. This person is not a hacker with expertise in security, but knows the basics.

A warning from Firefox is more difficult to ignore that one of Windows, for obvious reasons, but I'm still wondering why would he/she do it. I have seen users ignore warnings from avast! an anti-virus application (the window superimposes itself on the screen and they still ignore it) and I kind of understand it, its something within the OS, easy to ignore. But the Internet is like going into a minefield and ignoring large signs above each mine.

It's been a while, I believe it was SpamLoco , who shared a Tweet on a study published on safety-info News, showing how users evade all warnings in order to complete the task at hand (even the most obvious!).

Incredible ...



Source Article: Ignorando las alertas
Published on: 2009/08/18
Author: jProgr

Thanks for another great article jProgr.com