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ARTICLE
ASSESSING END-USER RESILIENCE TO PHISHING: A STUDY ON EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTIONS AND SIMULATED ATTACKS IN A CROATIAN UNIVERSITY
Issue Vol. 1 No. 01 (2024): Volume 01 Issue 01 --- Section Articles --- Published Date: 2024-12-25
Abstract
Phishing remains a pervasive and evolving cybersecurity threat, consistently exploiting the human element as a primary vulnerability in organizational defenses. This comprehensive study investigates the efficacy of structured educational interventions combined with realistic simulated phishing attacks in bolstering end-user resilience against these threats within a prominent Croatian university. Employing a quasi-experimental design, the research involved a multi-phased approach comprising an initial baseline assessment, targeted educational modules, and subsequent simulated attacks. We meticulously analyzed behavioral responses, compromise rates, and their statistical associations with various demographic and contextual variables, including age, departmental affiliation, and professional qualifications. While individual interventions showed varying degrees of immediate impact, a critical finding emerged regarding the significant influence of temporal factors, particularly pre-holiday periods, on user susceptibility. These results underscore the inherent limitations of standalone awareness assessments and highlight the imperative for ongoing, highly contextualized, and integrated cybersecurity training methodologies. The findings offer practical guidance for academic institutions and other organizations seeking to develop more robust and adaptive phishing defense strategies that account for both human factors and environmental dynamics.
Keywords
References
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