The psychology of phishing: Why we keep clicking

Phishing remains the number one threat vector for cyber crime. Given recent advances in AI, phishing campaigns have become even more targeted and effective. The vast majority of breaches and ransomware attacks begin with compromised credentials obtained via phishing. Cyber criminals ruthlessly exploit vulnerabilities in human perception and psychology to get us to click on their scam emails.

In this presentation, Dr Carlopio discusses the four social psychological contributors to why we keep on clicking on phishing emails: our (1) emotions, (2) instincts, (3) perceptions, and (4) personality.

Cyber criminals use urgency, fear, intimidation as well as the human tendency to trust and altruism to help engage us in their schemes. They capitalise on our instincts to procreate, provide and protect when they impersonate our friends and family to try and get us to send them money. They take advantage of our perceptual limitation when they spoof emails addresses and typosquat. Finally, they take advantage of our personalities when we fail to attend to details in email addresses used to send phishing emails.

Once we are aware of how cyber criminals use psychology to help continue to hook us and scam us, we can better resist their efforts. This presentation leaves the audience with specific recommendations and practices they can adopt today to help reduce their cyber security risk.