- Jun 9, 2013
- 6,720
Phishing is one of the biggest threats on the Internet. Attacks use it to gain access to login or financial information, or to scam users right away.
With phishing being a thing for longer than a decade, one could assume that users are aware of the risks that clicking on links or attachments in emails, chats or on websites poses, but that is apparently not the case.
A recent study at the German Friedrich-Alexander University concluded that 56% of email recipients and 40% of Facebook users clicked on links from unknown senders.
The research team conducted two studies in which they sent email messages and Facebook messages to about 1700 students of the University.
The messages were adapted to the target group. Messages in both studies claimed that the link pointed to images of a party of the previous weekend. They were signed with a common name for the age group
A click on the link would open a web page that would simply show an access denied message. All clicks were logged this way, and that's how the researchers managed to get the stats for both studies.
Studies were slightly different in topic. In the first study, test subjects were addressed by first name. Test subjects were not addressed by first name in the second study, but additional details about the party were listed instead.
Also, for the Facebook study, profiles were created that offered varying degrees of public information. Some with photos and timeline information, others with no photos and minimal content.
The results were astonishing: 56% of email recipients and 38% of Facebook users clicked on the link in the first study. In the second study -- the one without the test subject's first name -- email clicks dropped down to 20% but Facebook clicks increased to 42%.
Full Article. Study: Half of people click on unknown sender links - gHacks Tech News
With phishing being a thing for longer than a decade, one could assume that users are aware of the risks that clicking on links or attachments in emails, chats or on websites poses, but that is apparently not the case.
A recent study at the German Friedrich-Alexander University concluded that 56% of email recipients and 40% of Facebook users clicked on links from unknown senders.
The research team conducted two studies in which they sent email messages and Facebook messages to about 1700 students of the University.
The messages were adapted to the target group. Messages in both studies claimed that the link pointed to images of a party of the previous weekend. They were signed with a common name for the age group
A click on the link would open a web page that would simply show an access denied message. All clicks were logged this way, and that's how the researchers managed to get the stats for both studies.
Studies were slightly different in topic. In the first study, test subjects were addressed by first name. Test subjects were not addressed by first name in the second study, but additional details about the party were listed instead.
Also, for the Facebook study, profiles were created that offered varying degrees of public information. Some with photos and timeline information, others with no photos and minimal content.
The results were astonishing: 56% of email recipients and 38% of Facebook users clicked on the link in the first study. In the second study -- the one without the test subject's first name -- email clicks dropped down to 20% but Facebook clicks increased to 42%.
Full Article. Study: Half of people click on unknown sender links - gHacks Tech News
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