Security exploits can include cyber threats such as computer programs that can disturb the normal behavior of computer systems (viruses), unsolicited e-mail (spam), malicious software (malware), monitoring software (spyware), attempting to make computer resources unavailable to their intended users (Distributed Denial-of-Service or DDoS attack), the social engineering, and online identity theft (phishing). One such cyber threat, which is particularly dangerous to computer users is phishing. Phishing is well known as online identity theft, which targets to steal victims' sensitive information such as username, password and online banking details. This paper focuses on designing an innovative and gamified approach to educate individuals about phishing attacks. The study asks how one can integrate self-efficacy, which has a co-relation with the user's knowledge, into an anti-phishing educational game to thwart phishing attacks? One of the main reasons would appear to be a lack of user knowledge to prevent from phishing attacks. Therefore, this research investigates the elements that influence (in this case, either conceptual or procedural knowledge or their interaction effect) and then integrate them into an anti-phishing educational game to enhance people's phishing prevention behaviour through their motivation.
  Game based education is becoming more and more popular. This is because game based education provides an opportunity for learning in a natural environment. Phishing is an online identity theft, which attempts to steal sensitive information such as username, password, and online banking details from its victims. To prevent this, phishing awareness needs to be considered. This research aims to develop a game design framework, which enhances user avoidance behaviour through motivation to protect users from phishing attacks. In order to do this, a theoretical model derived from Technology Thread Avoidance Theory (TTAT) was developed and used in the game design framework (Liang & Xue, 2010). A survey study was undertaken with 150 regular computer users to elicit feedback through a questionnaire. The study findings revealed that perceived threat, safeguard effectiveness, safeguard cost, self-efficacy, perceived severity, and perceived susceptibility elements should be addressed in the game design framework for computer users to avoid phishing attacks. Furthermore, we argue that this game design framework can be used not only for preventing phishing attacks but also for preventing other malicious IT attacks such as viruses, malware, botnets and spyware. Phishing attacks, in which criminals lure Internet users to websites that impersonate legitimate sites, are occurring with increasing frequency and are causing considerable harm to victims. In this paper we describe the design and evaluation of an embedded training email system that teaches people about phishing during their normal use of email. We conducted lab experiments contrasting the effectiveness of standard security notices about phishing with two embedded training designs we developed. We found that embedded training works better than the current practice of sending security notices. We also derived sound design principles for embedded training systems.  Discussions in the security community often tend to end in agreement that the only way to really address many of our current problems is 'user education'. User education has, in many respects, become the default way to address the fact that our security environment is becoming too complex for us to secure with applications. But is user education the way forward or is it merely a term used to avoid admitting our failure to create a secure environment for our users customers? Is there any reason to expect that the user would be interested in educating themselves? Is there any research indicating that user education actually helps? This paper aims to discuss two questions. First, should we expect our users to be interested in education? After all, they pay us for taking care of security, so that they can get on with their real work. Second, do we have any evidence that user education leads to a higher level of security? Do the users actually change their behaviour in a way that mitigates risks? Are the risks we are seeing today addressable by increasing awareness?   When tempted by a good deal online, users don't focus on security warnings; rather, they look for signs to confirm a site's trustworthiness. User education needs to focus on challenging and correcting the misconceptions that guide current behavior. Phishing is an online identity theft that aims to steal sensitive information such as username, password and online banking details from its victims. Phishing education needs to be considered as a means to combat this threat. This paper reports on a design and development of a mobile game prototype as an educational tool helping computer users to protect themselves against phishing attacks. The elements of a game design framework for avoiding phishing attacks were used to address the game design issues. Our mobile game design aimed to enhance the users' avoidance behaviour through motivation to protect themselves against phishing threats. A think-aloud study was conducted, along with a pre- and post-test, to assess the game design framework though the developed mobile game prototype. The study results showed a significant improvement of participants' phishing avoidance behaviour in their post-test assessment. Furthermore, the study findings suggest that participants' threat perception, safeguard effectiveness, self-efficacy, perceived severity and perceived susceptibility elements positively impact threat avoidance behaviour, whereas safeguard cost had a negative impact on it. We developed a mobile game prototype to thwart phishing attacks.Investigated what key elements should be addressed in the game.The elements derived from a game design framework were incorporated.Empirically investigated users' phishing threat avoidance behaviour. In this paper we describe the design and evaluation of Anti-Phishing Phil, an online game that teaches users good habits to help them avoid phishing attacks. We used learning science principles to design and iteratively refine the game. We evaluated the game through a user study: participants were tested on their ability to identify fraudulent web sites before and after spending 15 minutes engaged in one of three anti-phishing training activities (playing the game, reading an anti-phishing tutorial we created based on the game, or reading existing online training materials). We found that the participants who played the game were better able to identify fraudulent web sites compared to the participants in other conditions. We attribute these effects to both the content of the training messages presented in the game as well as the presentation of these materials in an interactive game format. Our results confirm that games can be an effective way of educating people about phishing and other security attacks.  Phishing is an online identity theft, which aims to steal confidential information such as username, password and online banking details from its victims. To prevent this, anti-phishing education needs to be considered. Therefore, the research reported in this paper examines whether conceptual knowledge or procedural knowledge has a positive effect on computer users' self-efficacy to thwart phishing threats. In order to accomplish this, a theoretical model based on Liang and Xue's (2010) Technology Threat Avoidance Theory (TTAT) has been proposed and evaluated. Data was collected from 161 regular computer users to elicit their feedback through an online questionnaire. The study findings revealed that the interaction effect of conceptual and procedural knowledge positively impacts on computer users' self-efficacy, which enhances their phishing threat avoidance behaviour. It can therefore be argued that well-designed end-user security education contributes to thwart phishing threats. This study aims to understand the IT threat avoidance behaviors of personal computer users. We tested a research model derived from Technology Threat Avoidance Theory (TTAT) using survey data. We find that users’ IT threat avoidance behavior is predicted by avoidance motivation, which, in turn, is determined by perceived threat, safeguard effectiveness, safeguard cost, and self-efficacy. Users develop a threat perception when they believe that the malicious IT is likely to attack them (perceived susceptibility) and the negative consequences will be severe if they are attacked (perceived severity). When threatened, users are more motivated to avoid the threat if they believe that the safeguarding measure is effective (safeguard effectiveness) and inexpensive (safeguard cost) and they have confidence in using it (self-efficacy). In addition, we find that perceived threat and safeguard effectiveness have a negative interaction on avoidance motivation so that a higher level of perceived threat is associated with a weaker relationship between safeguard effectiveness and avoidance motivation or a higher level of safeguard effectiveness is associated with a weaker relationship between perceived threat and avoidance motivation. These findings provide an enriched understanding about personal computer users’ IT threat avoidance behavior.