Getting hooked!? Phishing attack quiz

The results are coming in and they aren’t pretty! The folks at Intel Security created a quiz about the dangers of online phishing and the results for the 19,000 people around the world are revealing. Only 3% scored a perfect 10 out of 10! (Take the quiz.)

A perfect score in protecting yourself against phishing is important because it’s an all or nothing attack. Even one bad click can result in you getting ‘hooked’: you lose and that’s a win for the bad guys.

The average score of 65% (back in school that was a D, and that wasn’t good!) reveals that way too many people still don’t know the warning signs of a phishing attack.

As we’ve pointed out earlier, phishing attacks are con games. The bad guys work hard to get you to act (click on a bad link) BEFORE you see the warning signs. And there are always warning signs, but sometimes you have to look hard.

The most important step in protecting yourself against phishing attacks is paying attention! And that’s the most worrying aspect of the results. The people taking the test were on their guard against a phishing attack. That’s not usually the case when you’re at home glancing through your inbox. That suggests that the average score of all those folks would actually be lower when at home or not in testing conditions.

Learn how to identify phishing attacks, and then see how you do on the quiz (scroll to the bottom of the page). Better safe than sorry: if you’re not sure about an email, call the vendor (bank, credit card, etc.) at the number on a recent bill.

Always remember the number one rule of protecting yourself against phishing: pay attention to anything (ANYTHING!) that’s out of the ordinary in emails and websites, and then DON’T CLICK!