research-article

Teaching Johnny not to fall for phish

Authors:

Ponnurangam Kumaraguru,

Alessandro Acquisti,

Lorrie Faith Cranor,

Jason HongAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Internet Technology (TOIT), Volume 10, Issue 2

Article No.: 7, Pages 1 - 31

https://doi.org/10.1145/1754393.1754396

Published: 10 June 2010 Publication History

Abstract

Phishing attacks, in which criminals lure Internet users to Web sites that spoof legitimate Web sites, are occurring with increasing frequency and are causing considerable harm to victims. While a great deal of effort has been devoted to solving the phishing problem by prevention and detection of phishing emails and phishing Web sites, little research has been done in the area of training users to recognize those attacks. Our research focuses on educating users about phishing and helping them make better trust decisions. We identified a number of challenges for end-user security education in general and anti-phishing education in particular: users are not motivated to learn about security; for most users, security is a secondary task; it is difficult to teach people to identify security threats without also increasing their tendency to misjudge nonthreats as threats. Keeping these challenges in mind, we developed an email-based anti-phishing education system called “PhishGuru” and an online game called “Anti-Phishing Phil” that teaches users how to use cues in URLs to avoid falling for phishing attacks. We applied learning science instructional principles in the design of PhishGuru and Anti-Phishing Phil. In this article we present the results of PhishGuru and Anti-Phishing Phil user studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of these tools. Our results suggest that, while automated detection systems should be used as the first line of defense against phishing attacks, user education offers a complementary approach to help people better recognize fraudulent emails and websites.

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Cited By

Yasin AFatima RWen LJiangBin ZNiazi M(2025)What goes wrong during phishing education? A probe into a game-based assessment with unfavorable resultsEntertainment Computing10.1016/j.entcom.2024.10081552(100815)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2024.100815
Dubovecka K(2024)Vulnerability of Students of Masaryk University to Two Different Types of PhishingApplied Cybersecurity & Internet Governance10.60097/ACIG/190268Online publication date: 24-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.60097/ACIG/190268
Burda PAllodi LZannone N(2024)Cognition in Social Engineering Empirical Research: A Systematic Literature ReviewACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/363514931:2(1-55)Online publication date: 29-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3635149
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Index Terms

Teaching Johnny not to fall for phish
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
2. Security and privacy
  1. Systems security
    1. Operating systems security

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cover image ACM Transactions on Internet Technology

ACM Transactions on Internet Technology Volume 10, Issue 2

May 2010

123 pages

ISSN:1533-5399

EISSN:1557-6051

DOI:10.1145/1754393

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2010 ACM.

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Publication History

Published: 10 June 2010

Accepted: 01 November 2009

Revised: 01 September 2009

Received: 01 March 2009

Published in TOIT Volume 10, Issue 2

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Cited By

Yasin AFatima RWen LJiangBin ZNiazi M(2025)What goes wrong during phishing education? A probe into a game-based assessment with unfavorable resultsEntertainment Computing10.1016/j.entcom.2024.10081552(100815)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2024.100815
Dubovecka K(2024)Vulnerability of Students of Masaryk University to Two Different Types of PhishingApplied Cybersecurity & Internet Governance10.60097/ACIG/190268Online publication date: 24-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.60097/ACIG/190268
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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3635149
Agha ZPark JWan RAli NWang YDifranzo DBadillo-Urquiola KWisniewski P(2024)Tricky vs. Transparent: Towards an Ecologically Valid and Safe Approach for Evaluating Online Safety Nudges for TeensProceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642313(1-20)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
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