Preventive measures in fighting against phishing attacks

Cybersecurity is one of the biggest challenges in the digital age, because information became an expensive asset dealing with huge data volumes, improving communication with digital environment. Digital devices and information systems increasingly become attractive for cyber-attacks. According to Eurostat, in 2019, 1 out 3 EU citizens reported security-related threats; among these phishing attacks are the most frequent ones.

To address the mentioned problems, the University of Tartu has joined the Erasmus+ funded project on the “Safeguarding against Phishing in the age of 4 Industrial Revolution” (CyberPhish). The objective of the CyberPhish project is to develop a learning material to educate students of higher education institutions, educators, university staff (members of the community), education centres, business sector (employers and employees), and encourage their critical thinking in the field of cyber security. The special emphasis will be place in recognising and reacting to the phishing security risks.

First, it is planned to study the recognition of phishing attacks and critical thinking using psychological aspects. Next, the project partners will design a curriculum, e-learning materials, a blended learning environment, knowledge and skills self-assessment, knowledge evaluation system simulations for students and other users in order to prevent from phishing attacks. The project will also raise the competencies to recognise the phishing threats and to apply countermeasures to mitigate them. University of Tartu will lead the development of the online learning material.

Project consortium consists of 6 partners, including Vilnius University (project coordinator) from Lithuania, Macdac Engineering Consultancy Bureau LTD - MECB (Malta), Dorea Educational Institute WTF (Cyprus), Public institution "Information Technologies Institute" (Lithuania), University of Tartu (Estonia) and Altacom, SIA (Latvia). The start of the project is 02.11.2020 and its duration – 24 months.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Further information: Raimundas Matulevičius, Professor of Information Security, University of Tartu Institute of Computer Science, 737 5421, raimundas.matulevicius [ät] ut.ee.