Understanding phishing susceptibility: An integrated model of cue-utilization and habits

This preliminary study investigates individuals' susceptibility in responding to phishing email. Drawing on cue-utilization theory and habit, this paper examines the antecedents of individuals' phishing susceptibility. A survey was conducted with 228 students who were target of actual phishing attack. The results provide strong support for the model's theoretical structure. The results also indicate that, urgency arousing cues embedded in a phishing email are positively related to individuals' phishing susceptibility. While individual automatic use of communication media leads to phishing victimization, routine use of communication media does not. The study contributes to the stream of phishing research that seeks to understand why individual fall for phishing by explaining the effect of habits and arousal cues. The study results provide foundation for future research to employ rigorous methodology that measure actual phishing by manipulation of the framing and content of email messages to develop and test a more robust model.