How to avoid getting hooked by phishing mails, Raising awareness for cyber security

Abstract

Phishing mails are an urgent problem for organizations, as one successful attempt can cost a company millions of euros. Phishing is a form of fraud in which a criminal uses forged e-mails or websites to access personal data or passwords of internet users imitating a legitimate address and using the given data to withdraw money or spread more phishing mails. Considering this relevance, the Human Firewall campaign of a big energy company was looking for a new approach to tackle the problem that too many employees get hooked by phishing mails as well as to raise overall awareness for the whole campaign. In this study, self-awareness was primed and an informative article was written to decrease the likelihood that an employee clicks on a phishing mail. It was shown, that both measures effectively improved the reaction on the phishing mails, given that the intervention is noticed.