Learn to Outsmart Email Scams

Don't get fooled, learn to outsmart phishing email scams today!

Strengthen your digital defenses by playing our free, interactive online game designed as part of a cutting-edge research study.

What is Phishing?

Phishing emails are malicious, spoofed emails sent by hackers to compromise your data. More than $5 billion is lost each year by email users and businesses worldwide due to these attacks. The Phishducation platform, along with the Phooled! game, aims to educate users so that they can safeguard themselves against these adaptive threats!

Consent Form

Cette étude sera menée en anglais uniquement. This study will be conducted in English only.

Title of the study: Influential Factors in the Education of Users for Malicious Email Detection

Name of Principal Investigator: Vignesh Kumar Karuppasamy Affiliation: School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering, University of Ottawa Email address: vkaruppa@uottawa.ca

Name of Supervisor: Prof. David Knox Affiliation: School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering, University of Ottawa Email address: dknox@uottawa.ca Telephone number: 613-562-5800 (4763)

Invitation to Participate: I am invited to participate in the research study conducted by, Vignesh Kumar Karuppasamy, in the context of a Master’s thesis, under the supervision of Prof. David Knox.

Purpose of the Study: The purpose of the study is to identify how to improve phishing education and how to efficiently reduce the harmful effects of phishing in an organization such as a university. The study will improve my defenses against phishing emails and help determine which method of instruction is best suited for a university population.

Participation: My participation will consist of using the Phishducation platform to take interactive quizzes or play collaborative games with other users in real-time. My expectation is that these will take ten to twenty minutes per session for a number of sessions determined by me. Additionally, I will complete a pre-test and post-test survey, each with a duration of twenty minutes at the beginning and end of the study. The entire study will be conducted virtually on the Phishducation platform website at https://phishducation.ca. My minimum expected total time commitment for the study is forty-five minutes on average.

Risks: My participation in this study may entail that I interact with other users on the platform, while playing the Phooled! game. This may cause me to feel social risk, as I could be judged for my performance by other users in the game session. I have received assurances from the researcher that every effort will be made to minimize these risks, as the game has been designed to encourage positive collaborative play and enforce fair play among users. Additionally, I have the ability to block specific (e.g. rude) users to mitigate this risk and ensure that I don’t interact with them again on the platform. As already explained in the participation section, I may be inconvenienced by the time required to fill the previously-mentioned surveys and for the use of the Phishducation platform. However, the researcher assures me that all measures have been taken to reduce the length of surveys and the time duration of my sessions on the Phishducation platform are under my control.

Benefits: My participation in this study will improve my phishing detection skills and help make me more resilient to these types of attacks, so that I can protect myself against any negative effects of phishing. My participation will help build phishing educational tools that will help my organization reduce training costs and deploy educational interventions which are time-efficient for all my peers.

Confidentiality and anonymity: I have received assurances from the researcher that the information I will share will remain strictly confidential. I understand that the contents will be used only for improving phishing educational tools and that my confidentiality will be protected by ensuring that my personal information (e.g. my email address) will never be shared with any person other than the researchers listed on this form.

To minimize the risk of security breaches and to help ensure your confidentiality we recommend that you use standard safety measures such as signing out of your account, closing your browser and locking your screen or device when you are no longer using them / when you have completed the study.

Anonymity will be protected in the following manner: By ensuring that my personal information will never be shared with any person other than the researchers listed on this form.

Conservation of data: The data collected on the Phishducation platform website will be kept in a secure manner and will be secured either on the server with a cryptographic key and passphrase, and/or secure University of Ottawa servers. This data will be retained for a minimum period of five years. At the end of five years, the data may be stored indefinitely or destroyed. My IP address will be temporarily logged by the Phishducation web server for protection against malicious requests and DoS (denial-of-service) attacks. This data will be automatically deleted within a 24-hour time period.

Voluntary Participation: I am under no obligation to participate and, if I choose to participate, I can withdraw from the study at any time and/or refuse to answer any further questions, without suffering any negative consequences. If I choose to withdraw, all data gathered until the time of withdrawal will be deleted, unless I provide permission for the data to be retained.

Acceptance: I agree to participate in the above research study conducted by Vignesh Kumar Karuppasamy (School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering, University of Ottawa), whose research is under the supervision of Prof. David Knox.

If I have any questions about the study, I may contact the researcher or his supervisor.

If I have any questions regarding the ethical conduct of this study, I may contact the Protocol Officer for Ethics in Research, University of Ottawa, Tabaret Hall, 550 Cumberland Street, Room 154, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5 Tel.: (613) 562-5387 Email: ethics@uottawa.ca