Phishing Challenge Recap

A summary of the phishing challenge emails and results from each week.

This past October VUIT hosted our 2nd annual Email Phishing Challenge. Each week a simulated phishing email was sent to all vinu.edu email accounts and the first user to report the message to the IT Help Desk won a small prize.

Here are the results of the Phishing Challenge:

 

Week 1: Please complete the quick poll! 

Article - Week 1 Phish

• Recipients: 1213

• Clicks: 231 (19%) Reported: 9

• Key Signs:

  • Potential spoofed sender address. 

(From: Vincennes University<admin@vinu.edu>)

• Ambiguous salutation 

(“Dear user”)

• Suspicious link destination 

(Hover over the link. Link does not take you to the site the email content says it will.)

 

Week 2: Amazon: Please Review Your Delivery Details to Avoid Return

Article - Week 2 Phish

• Recipients:1219

• Clicks: 47 (3.9%) Reported: 32

• Key Signs:

  • Strange or suspicious email domain.

(From: Amazon <noreply@youraccount-alerts.com>)

• Ambiguous salutation.

(“Dear user”)

• Request to click a link or open an attachment.

(Tells you to click a link or open an attachment.)

• Suspicious link destination.

(Hover over the link. Link does not take you to the site the email content says it will.)

• Sense of urgency 

(“Do this now!”)

 

Week 3: Email Review

Article - Week 3 Phish

• Recipients: 1220

• Clicks: 210 (17.2%) Reported: 31

• Key Signs:

  • Strange or suspicious email domain.

(Mailserver <noreply@mail-serverpost.com>)

• Suspicious link destination.

(Hover over the link. Link does not take you to the site the email content says it will.)

 

Week 4: Is your voter registration up to date?

Article - Week 4 Phish

• Recipients: 1225

• Clicks: 25 (2%) Reported: 12

• Key Signs:

  • Suspicious email domain.

(Department of State <vote@compliance-gov.com>)

• Request to click a link or open an attachment.

• Suspicious link destination.

• (Hover over the link. Link does not take you to the site the email content says it will.)

• Sense of urgency 

(Do this now!”).

 

Week 5: Your organization requires a Zoom upgrade

Article - Week 5 Phish

• Recipients: 1229

• Clicks: 115 (9.4%) Reported: 46

• Key Signs:

  • Spoofed domain from well-known websites/organizations.

(From: Zoom <itsupport@update-zoom.us>)

• Sense of urgency.

(Do this now!”).

• Suspicious link destination.

(Hover over the link. Link does not take you to the site the email content says it will.)

 

Takeaways:

Key phishing indicators included suspicious domains, ambiguous salutations, requests for urgent actions, and misleading links. Despite efforts, click-through rates varied from 2% to 19% highlighting areas for continued vigilance.