Scientists develop Anti-Phishing game to educate Web users

September 29, 2007 |

Scientists develop Anti-Phishing game to educate Web users

By Ruben Francia

Scientists develop Anti-Phishing game to educate Web users Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in the US have unveiled an online game designed to teach web users how to better recognize and avoid phishing attacks and other Internet scams.

The 15-minute game, called Anti-Phishing Phil, focuses on teaching Internet users how to differentiate the URL of a legitimate site from a fraudulent one.

The game features a little fish named Phil that must tell the difference between legitimate and fraudulent Web address in order to eat worms and gain points.

Initial testing at the Carnegie Usable Privacy and Security (CUPS) Laboratory shows that the game was able to improve the user’s accuracy to spot real and fake sites from 69% prior to training to 87% after playing the game.

Also, people who spent just 15 minutes playing the game were better able to identify real and fake sites than people who had spent the same amount of time reading traditional anti-phishing training materials available on line.

CUPS Lab director Lorrie Cranor told Vnunet that “We believe that education is essential if people are to avoid being ripped-off by phishing attacks and similar online scams.”

“Unlike viruses or spyware, phishing attacks do not exploit weaknesses in hardware or software, but take advantage of the way people use computers and their often-limited knowledge of the way computers work,” Cranor added.

After a successful initial test of the game, scientists at the CUPS Lab want to expose the game to a lot of testers. Basically, they are asking the public to visit the Anti-Phishing Phil site and click on the ‘Play the game!’ link. Participants will be asked to take a short quiz, play the game and then take another quiz.

CUPS Lab has disclosed that they are now in conversations with a number of large enterprises about integrating the game to be part of employee training programs. It has also collaborated with Portugal Telecom to develop the Portuguese version of the game.