Analysis of Security Risks in User Interface Design and Development

This report provides a detailed analysis of the security risks inherent in user interface (UI) design, particularly within the context of software and mobile application development. It emphasizes that the appropriate user interface requires careful coding and testing. The report identifies several key security vulnerabilities, including questionable application permissions, malicious functionalities, UI impersonation, unauthorized dialing, and automated system modifications. It also addresses risks associated with excessive features, which can lead to usability issues and user confusion. Furthermore, the report highlights critical threats such as data leakage, unsafe data storage, and unencrypted data transmission. The importance of effective sign-up screens in shaping user experience is also discussed. The report references several key sources to support its claims, offering a comprehensive overview of UI security challenges and considerations.

User Interface is a complex aspect of the software development. The appropriate user interface
requires writing numerous codes and careful testing of each of them. User interface refers to the
face from where the users interact with the machine. The interactions among the human and the
machines are facilitated by the use of the user interface. The purpose of the interaction is to
ensure that the effective operation is carried out and the machine can be effectively controlled
from the human end (Farrugia, 1997). There are various examples related to the user interface
and one such interface example can be the operating system of the computer. In general the
purpose of the user interface designs is that to ensure that the interface is easy to use to the
individuals and it feels enjoyable in operating the machine. The lack of interesting usability and
attractive interface is likely to scare the users from the mobile application. After the
advancement in the technologies, the user interface term has got little distorted. Now whenever
the term user interface is spoken one clearly assume that the discussion is about the graphical
user interface. The other form of interfaces such as the interfaces present in the industries and
machine management are now termed as human-machine interface.
There are various security risks that have been identified in relation to the user interface.
Mentioned below are some of the security risks that have been identified:
There is the possibility that the permissions asked by the application from the user are
questionable. There are instances when the inappropriate permissions from the users scare the
owners in installing the application. Asking for permissions is an important aspect in todays’
legal scenario. However, allowing the application to ask unnecessary permission might raise
suspicion and the users might end up not using the app. This is the security risks at the end of the
users that the app might intervene unnecessarily in the users’ life.
On the application side, the malicious functionality, UI impersonation, unauthorized dialing,
automated system modification are some of the major security risks (Dwivedi, 2010).
Again if the user side is concerned then it can be said that the presence of features more than
required within the application makes it less fun to enjoy and increases the clutter within the
application (Ghosh and Swaminathan, 2001). The users are sometimes left in the situation of
analysis and paralysis where they fail to decide which feature to use and which ones not to use.
In these cases, the usability and usefulness of the application to the users decreases due to the
inability to the users to understand the application.
Apart from that, the security vulnerability from the application side is that the leakage of
sensitive data, unsafe storage of the users’ data, and transmission of data in open manner without
proper encryption are the challenging aspect (Wasserman, 2010).
Another challenging aspect is the development of the sign up screen that are less effective in
presenting what one can expect within the application (Ghosh and Swaminathan, 2001). The sign
up screen is the first thing that is seen by the users and the lack of good feel from the screen

might scare them from the application or they will start using the app with heavy heart and might
leave the app in coming days.
References
Dwivedi, H. (2010). Mobile application security. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
Wasserman, A. I. (2010, November). Software engineering issues for mobile application
development. In Proceedings of the FSE/SDP workshop on Future of software engineering
research (pp. 397-400). ACM.
Ghosh, A. K., & Swaminatha, T. M. (2001). Software security and privacy risks in mobile e-
commerce. Communications of the ACM, 44(2), 51-57.
Farrugia, L. J. (1997). ORTEP-3 for Windows-a version of ORTEP-III with a Graphical User
Interface (GUI). Journal of Applied Crystallography, 30(5), 565-565.