Open Access

REVIEW

Phishing Attacks in Social Engineering: A Review

by Kofi Sarpong Adu-Manu^*, Richard Kwasi Ahiable, Justice Kwame Appati, Ebenezer Essel Mensah

Department of Computer Science, University of Ghana, Legon Accra, Ghana

* Corresponding Author: Kofi Sarpong Adu-Manu. Email:

Journal of Cyber Security 2022, 4(4), 239-267. https://doi.org/10.32604/jcs.2023.041095

Received 11 April 2023; Accepted 01 June 2023; Issue published 10 August 2023

Abstract

Organisations closed their offices and began working from home online to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This shift in work culture coincided with increased online use during the same period. As a result, the rate of cybercrime has skyrocketed. This study examines the approaches, techniques, and countermeasures of Social Engineering and phishing in this context. The study discusses recent trends in the existing approaches for identifying phishing assaults. We explore social engineering attacks, categorise them into types, and offer both technical and social solutions for countering phishing attacks which makes this paper different from similar works that mainly focused on the types of attacks. We also show essential human characteristics that make users vulnerable to phishing attacks, their mitigating strategies, challenges, and future directions.

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Keywords

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