Phishing Preventing in one HEI : Case Study with Students in one Higher Education Institution

Social Engineering attacks, in particular the phishing attack, have seen an increase and greater depth in the way users are approached to achieve their goals. Users of Higher Education Institutions are specific cases, and it is important to know their perception, in particular that of students about these actions. The use of controlled attacks has been widely used, if possible, on a regular basis, to know the reality of an organization and, in this way, ways of acting can be planned to better defend and prepare users for current and future engineering attacks. Social. This work sought, through this simulated attack approach and an awareness campaign, to assess the state of users in terms of awareness of phishing and to propose and evaluate preventive measures for its improvement. Among the results found, it is identified that the most vulnerable groups are younger students, and students from different areas of study do not present relevant differences in the perception of phishing. Furthermore, the use of simple documentation and information techniques for users did not significantly improve perception, making it necessary to explore new ways of preparing users for phishing.