TY - GEN
T1 - Exposing generational and gender gap in phishing awareness among young adults
T2 - 6th International Conference on Information Technology and Digital Applications, ICITDA 2021
AU - Pratama, Ahmad R.
AU - Vadila, Nunu
AU - Firmansyah, Firman M.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Author(s).
PY - 2023/3/9
Y1 - 2023/3/9
N2 - Phishing is one of the most common cybersecurity attacks that target end users. Increasing user awareness of such a social engineering approach is a good, if not the best, countermeasure of phishing. While many have tried to educate users on this matter, such interventions may not work equally good for all demographic groups. In this paper, we conducted an experimental study involving 247 participants to see if a small intervention in the form of educational infographics can improve phishing awareness among young adults and if the effects were comparable for both males and females. It is apparent from the results of this study that men and women differ significantly in their knowledge of cybersecurity, particularly in regard to phishing, and that some cybersecurity education might not be effective for women. In addition, we found that the older millennials in their 30s had a much better phishing awareness than the younger generations (i.e., the 20s and the teenagers), with or without any interventions. Further research is required to figure out the factors leading to these differences in order to prevent cybercriminals from preying on one gender over the other, as well as to develop a good cybersecurity education approach that works to raise cybersecurity awareness of users regardless of their age or gender.
AB - Phishing is one of the most common cybersecurity attacks that target end users. Increasing user awareness of such a social engineering approach is a good, if not the best, countermeasure of phishing. While many have tried to educate users on this matter, such interventions may not work equally good for all demographic groups. In this paper, we conducted an experimental study involving 247 participants to see if a small intervention in the form of educational infographics can improve phishing awareness among young adults and if the effects were comparable for both males and females. It is apparent from the results of this study that men and women differ significantly in their knowledge of cybersecurity, particularly in regard to phishing, and that some cybersecurity education might not be effective for women. In addition, we found that the older millennials in their 30s had a much better phishing awareness than the younger generations (i.e., the 20s and the teenagers), with or without any interventions. Further research is required to figure out the factors leading to these differences in order to prevent cybercriminals from preying on one gender over the other, as well as to develop a good cybersecurity education approach that works to raise cybersecurity awareness of users regardless of their age or gender.
KW - Cybersecurity awareness
KW - Cybersecurity education
KW - Gender gap
KW - Phishing
KW - Survey experiment
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85151497795
U2 - 10.1063/5.0114868
DO - 10.1063/5.0114868
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85151497795
T3 - AIP Conference Proceedings
BT - Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Technology and Digital Applications 2021, ICITDA 2021
A2 - Kurniawardhani, Arrie
A2 - Hidayat, Taufiq
PB - American Institute of Physics Inc.
Y2 - 5 November 2021 through 6 November 2021
ER -