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 "The Wild Wild Web," as Lance James director of securities in one the more prominent computer hacking companies Vigilant once termed it, is a dangerous and virulent place; Surrounded on all sides by hackers, viruses, con-artists and criminals, anyone can become cornered and attacked.

The easiest targets in cyberspace are children and the elderly, who have unlimited access to the web and no protection (accept for perhaps child-lock systems) from predators and other persons that only seek to take advantage of their ignorance.

 A Kansas State University computer scientist and psychologist is currently developing improved security warning messages that prompt users to go with their gut when it comes to making a decision online. With just a click of a button, computer users without security-specific education could make informed descisions regarding a particular site. 

"Security systems are very difficult to use, and staying safe online is a growing challenge for everyone," says Eugene Vasserman, assistant professor of computing and information sciences . "It is especially devastating to inexperienced computer users, who may not spot risk indicators and may misinterpret currently implemented textual explanations and visual feedback of risk."

The goal of the computer-based program, according to report by Kansas State University, "is to keep users from making mistakes that could compromise their online security and to inform them when a security failure has happened."

Vasserman and his colleague Gary Brase, associate professor of psychology have surmised that people are affected more through visual warnings rather than with any auditory or literary based caveats; pop-up messages with visual stimuli informing users about an expired security certificate, or a website that is known to contain malware, among other online dangers, would be developed.

The idea is to have users make a gut reaction decision based on  the messages.

"The challenge is to get people to make the right decision," Vasserman said. "For example, sometimes a browser will show a dialog box saying this website has an expired SSL certificate, and sometimes the safer behavior is for people to still proceed and accept the expired certificate. But sometimes a website can pose a serious threat. We want people to make good choices without having to understand the technical detail, but we don't want to make the choice for them; we want to show them the importance and danger level of that choice."

Previous studies on human behavior and psychology reveal that people are more likely to make the right choices when given a nudge in the right direction rather than being forced to comply with security laws and other proposed sanctions.

The brain-child would utilize a "click the consequences" system that would give users a taste of what the offending site would mean for their computer.

 Having a system that shows instantaneously recognizable consequences could be helpful to computer users who are unsure of what visiting a site may mean for their safety and security. Researchers note that hospital computer systems could especially benefit this as hackers have recently used diagnostic sites as scouting spaces to steal confidential patient files.

"Presenting bad things with some sort of visual image is tricky because you want to convey to the user that this is not good, but you also don't want to traumatize them," Vasserman said.

Complicated security jargon confuses users and so this project would create software that would show users rather than tell them what would happen if they enter a potentially dangerous site or do not heed security warnings.