Experimental Investigation of Demographic Factors Related to Phishing Susceptibility

Abstract

This paper reports on a simulated phishing experiment targeting 6,938 faculty and staff at George Mason University. The study examined various possible predictors of phishing susceptibility. The focus of the present paper is on demographic factors (including age, gender and position/employment). Since previous studies of age and gender have yielded discrepant results, one purpose of the study was to disambiguate these findings. A second purpose was to compare different types of email phishing exploits. A third objective was to compare the effect of different types of feedback given to those who clicked on one or more of three simulated phishing exploits that were deployed over a three-week period. Our analysis of demographic factors, effects of phishing email content, and effects of repeated exposure to phishing exploits revealed significant age effects, marginally significant gender differences, and significant differences in email type. A multi-level model estimated effects of multiple variables simultaneously.