An Analysis of Phishing Susceptibility Through the Lens of Protection Motivation Theory

Users of communication tools are vulnerable to a cyberattack called phishing which aims to trick a recipient into giving away information or access that the attacker should not have. There is a great need to protect the recipient from becoming a victim of phishing. Protection can be done a multitude of ways; however, the human will be last barrier of entry when all digital protection fails. This is why anti-phishing training is used to enable email users to see the difference between real email and phishing attacks. This research explores the use of Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to analyse phishing susceptibility by interviewing ten employees in a large financial company. The analysis …