System Administrators and Patch Management - Information sources for Patch Decision Making

本论文的目的是了解负责对核心业务技术系统应用补丁/更新的系统管理员（系统管理员）的信息源和收集行为。我们对此很感兴趣，因为补丁通常包含安全/漏洞修复程序，可以堵塞系统中的漏洞。因此，如果不及时应用这些补丁，系统管理员将潜在地增加这些漏洞被恶意攻击者利用的风险。这将通过学习来实现：系统管理员的在线社区，因为他们通过论坛和邮件列表共享信息。工业环境中系统管理员处理日常工作流程问题时的人种学研究。这些数据将用于了解与信息源和系统管理员依赖这些在线社区进行信息验证相关的信任和风险关系。所采用的方法包括网络抓取、网络人种学、定性代码书设计和应用，以及人种学/语境探究技术。新颖的工程内容是补丁信息的社会技术影响及其对补丁决策的理论化影响。见解将用于提出更新反馈系统的设计见解，以帮助及时应用补丁。

The objectives of this thesis is to understand the information sources and gathering behaviours of system administrators (sysadmins) tasked with the application of patches/updates to core business technological systems. We are interested in this as patches often contain security/ vulnerability fixes which plug holes in systems. Therefore, without timely application of said patches, sysadmins will potentially increase their risk of these vulnerabilities being exploited by malicious attackers.This will be done through studying:1. Online communities of sysadmins, as they share information through forums and mailing lists.2. Ethnographic studies of sysadmins in industrial settings as they deal with day-to-day workflow problems.This data will be used to understand the trust and risk relationships that relate to information sources and sysadmins' reliance on these Online communities for information verification.The approaches taken used web-scraping, web-ethnography, qualitative code-book design and application, and an ethnographic/ contextual inquiry technique.The novel engineering content is the social-technical impact of patching information and its theorized impact on patching decisions. Insights will be used to propose design insights for update feedback systems to aid with the timely application of patches.