Towards an Understanding of Security Concerns within Communities

This paper documents some of the socio-technical issues involved in developing security measures for a community environment, looking at the users of a wireless mesh network deployed within a rural village in north west England. We adopt an interdisciplinary methodological approach in eliciting requirements, to analyse the success of treating a community as an ´organisation´ and implementing an approach, an OCTAVE method; in its original form designed to uncover security elements for businesses. Using a focus group technique we chart some of the assets and security concerns of the community members, leading to a greater understanding of people´s perceptions of security, both personally and within the community, and the role of security in their regular computer usage.