The power of intention in detecting social engineering attacks

Abstract

Social engineering attacks are increasing over the years along with the growth in Internet users. Our study aims to find ways to improve users’ protection against these attacks. Finding a suitable way to enhance users’ detection will have the impact of reducing the number of victims. Our study uses quantitative methods including experiment (role play) and a questionnaire to collect data. The findings suggest that raising users’ intention to validate the authenticity of received messages will increase their ability to make a robust decision about deceptive messages. The detection rate significantly increased when users have been alerted about social engineering attacks.