Holding Your Hand on the Danger Button: Observing User Phish Detection Strategies Across Mobile and Desktop

Matt Dixon; James Nicholson; Dawn Branley-Bell; Pam Briggs; Lynne Coventry

doi:10.1145/3546730

Holding Your Hand on the Danger Button: Observing User Phish Detection Strategies Across Mobile and Desktop

Matt Dixon, James Nicholson, Dawn Branley-Bell, Pam Briggs, Lynne Coventry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference article › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

72 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Phishing emails continue to be a major cause of cybersecurity breaches despite the development of technical measures designed to thwart these attacks. Most phishing studies have investigated desktop email platforms, but the use of mobile devices for email exchanges has soared in recent years, especially amongst young adults. In this paper, we explore how the digital platform (desktop vs. mobile) influences users’ phish detection strategies. Twenty-one young adults (18-25 years) were asked to rate the legitimacy of emails using a live inbox test while using a think-aloud protocol on both platforms. Our results suggest that a lack of knowledge about key defence information on the mobile platform results in weak phish detection. We discuss the implications of these findings and offer design recommendations to support effective phish detection by smartphone users.

Original language	English
Article number	195
Number of pages	22
Journal	Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Volume	6
Issue number	MHCI
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3546730
Publication status	Published - 19 Sept 2022
Event	MobileHCI 2022: The ACM International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction - Vancouver, Canada Duration: 28 Sept 2022 → 1 Oct 2022

Keywords

phishing
smartphones
young users

Access to Document

10.1145/3546730

PhishDetectionStrategiesAccepted author manuscript, 688 KB

Cite this

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title = "Holding Your Hand on the Danger Button: Observing User Phish Detection Strategies Across Mobile and Desktop",

abstract = "Phishing emails continue to be a major cause of cybersecurity breaches despite the development of technical measures designed to thwart these attacks. Most phishing studies have investigated desktop email platforms, but the use of mobile devices for email exchanges has soared in recent years, especially amongst young adults. In this paper, we explore how the digital platform (desktop vs. mobile) influences users{\textquoteright} phish detection strategies. Twenty-one young adults (18-25 years) were asked to rate the legitimacy of emails using a live inbox test while using a think-aloud protocol on both platforms. Our results suggest that a lack of knowledge about key defence information on the mobile platform results in weak phish detection. We discuss the implications of these findings and offer design recommendations to support effective phish detection by smartphone users.",

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note = "Funding information: This work was supported by the Cyber-Security across the Life Span (cSaLSA) Project, an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant (EP/P011446/1).; MobileHCI 2022 : The ACM International Conference on Mobile Human-Computer Interaction ; Conference date: 28-09-2022 Through 01-10-2022",

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AU - Nicholson, James

AU - Branley-Bell, Dawn

AU - Briggs, Pam

AU - Coventry, Lynne

N1 - Funding information: This work was supported by the Cyber-Security across the Life Span (cSaLSA) Project, an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant (EP/P011446/1).

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Y1 - 2022/9/19

N2 - Phishing emails continue to be a major cause of cybersecurity breaches despite the development of technical measures designed to thwart these attacks. Most phishing studies have investigated desktop email platforms, but the use of mobile devices for email exchanges has soared in recent years, especially amongst young adults. In this paper, we explore how the digital platform (desktop vs. mobile) influences users’ phish detection strategies. Twenty-one young adults (18-25 years) were asked to rate the legitimacy of emails using a live inbox test while using a think-aloud protocol on both platforms. Our results suggest that a lack of knowledge about key defence information on the mobile platform results in weak phish detection. We discuss the implications of these findings and offer design recommendations to support effective phish detection by smartphone users.

AB - Phishing emails continue to be a major cause of cybersecurity breaches despite the development of technical measures designed to thwart these attacks. Most phishing studies have investigated desktop email platforms, but the use of mobile devices for email exchanges has soared in recent years, especially amongst young adults. In this paper, we explore how the digital platform (desktop vs. mobile) influences users’ phish detection strategies. Twenty-one young adults (18-25 years) were asked to rate the legitimacy of emails using a live inbox test while using a think-aloud protocol on both platforms. Our results suggest that a lack of knowledge about key defence information on the mobile platform results in weak phish detection. We discuss the implications of these findings and offer design recommendations to support effective phish detection by smartphone users.

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KW - smartphones

KW - young users

U2 - 10.1145/3546730

DO - 10.1145/3546730

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Holding Your Hand on the Danger Button: Observing User Phish Detection Strategies Across Mobile and Desktop

Abstract

Keywords

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