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Cape Town – A security company has launched a quiz after a survey revealed that less than a quarter of internet users were able to identify phishing web pages.
On Monday, Kaspersky Lab revealed its online cyber savvy quiz to increase awareness of the methodologies that cyber criminals use to compromise computers.
"Self-preservation is an integral part of our existence. In the real world we know how to reduce the risk of money or property loss: We’ve learnt about it from an early age. When we’re offline we’re always on guard, but when it comes to the internet the self-preservation instinct often fails us,” said David Emm, principal security researcher at Kaspersky Lab.
The company’s survey of 18 000 people in 16 countries revealed that just 24% could recognise a phishing web page. Criminals typically use these fake pages to capture users’ information.
Kaspersky found that 58% would choose the phishing page to enter details instead of the genuine one and 10% would open attachments in suspicious emails.
The results indicate that many internet users are in need of education on online threats that may have real-world consequences.
“Everything has a digital format: Our personal life, intellectual property and money. All this requires that we adopt the same kind of responsibility as in real life, and the cost of making a mistake online can be just as high,” said Emm.
The online test has a maximum score of 150 and the average score was 95, with users scoring higher for taking the safest option.
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