A graphical user interface (GUI) is the most common option to interact with computer systems. However, according to the literature , system administrators often lean toward command line interfaces (CLIs). The goal of our work is to investigate which interfaces security experts prefer and which they actually use in their daily tasks. We collected experiences and opinions from 300 system administrators with the help of an online survey. All our respondents are system administrators  who work or have worked with firewalls. Our results show that only 32\% of the respondents prefer CLIs for managing firewalls, while this figure reaches 60\% for GUIs. We report the comparative characteristics regarding the strengths and limitations of the interfaces and for which tasks they are used by the security experts . Based on these results, we make design recommendations for firewall interfaces.
A graphical user interface (GUI) represents the most common option for interacting with computer systems. However, according to the literature system administrators often favor command line interfaces (CLIs). The goal of our work is to investigate which interfaces system administrators prefer, and which they actually utilize in their daily tasks. We collected experiences and opinions from 300 system administrators with the help of an online survey. All our respondents are system administrators , who work or have worked with firewalls. Our results show that only 32\% of the respondents prefer CLIs for managing firewalls, while the corresponding figure is 60\% for GUIs. We report the mentioned strengths and limitations of each interface and the tasks for which they are utilized by the system administrators . Based on these results, we provide design recommendations for firewall interfaces.
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