Analyzing Cybersecurity Risk with a Phishing Simulation Website

Phishing is a cyberattack that exploits human psychology and technical vulnerabilities. Previous research has revealed inconsistency of relation between age and phishing susceptibility. Hence, this project aims to identify which age group is more susceptible to phishing. Therefore, to achieve these objectives, this project developed and deployed a phishing simulation website to analyse which age group is more vulnerable. Respondents are considered successfully phished if they submitted information to the phishing website. The project adopted previous researcher's phishing process with addition of two phases as a guideline. The phases were Planning, Preparation, Attack, Valuable Acquisition, Knowledge Transfer and Result Analysis. A blog was developed to redirect phishing victims to an e-Learning page to raise their cybersecurity awareness. Persuasion techniques used in this simulation were Reward and Urgency. The phishing website gained 146 clicks and 89 form submissions. Adults aged 18 to 59 years old (group A) has a higher phishing success rate of compared to adults aged 60 years and above (group B). These findings suggest younger adults are more susceptible to phishing. Future research should involve larger sample size and seek broader input from participants.