Phishing mails are becoming increasingly professional and perfidious. A sender who seems to look trustworthy at first glance turns out to be fake at closer investigation. A link in an e-mail which only reveals that it does not actually lead to the URL stated, but to a fake website once you check it with your mouse pointer. Many users are perplexed by such e-mails. Too many though click on these links and end up on fake websites, or download malware from infected attachments onto their computer. And enable criminals to obtain confidential data or passwords this way.
Recognising fake e-mails and websites
To sensitive users further, Oliver Hirschi has developed a phishing test in co-operation with a security awareness team at the computer science department of the University of Lucerne. Under https://www.ebas.ch/phishingtest, anyone can find out on the «eBanking – but secure!» website how well they are able to distinguish phishing e-mails from legitimate ones. For seven different images of e-mails and websites, users are asked to decide whether and why they show phishing attempts or not. This involves recognising incorrect links, fake addresses or strange language, and checking secure e-mail signatures. To enhance the learning effect, all relevant and correct characteristics are displayed straight after every example.
«eBanking – but secure!» services
The
www.ebankingbutsecure.ch website is one of four services the University of Lucerne currently offers to their now over 40 financial institution partners. In a holistic approach, «eBanking – but secure!» also offers public consumer courses in addition to their website. Our financial institution partners’ helpdesk staff and customer consultants are also trained in current and security-related issues, and we are monitoring the Swiss media for any topics related to eBanking security, too. Further information can be found under:
www.ebas.ch
