Yes, yes, it really does say it: digital natives are particularly likely to fall for phishing emails. You might need to clarify a few terms first. First: digital native. That describes those who grew up with the Internet, so they (should) be particularly familiar with the digital world. By the way, a simple self-test clarifies whether you can count yourself among them: Have you ever set up a printer or something similar for your parents or grandparents? At Christmas for example. If the answer is yes, then you are most likely a digital native. More scientifically defined, as in the analysis by the cyber security company Sosafe, which came to this astonishing result, the 18 to 39 year olds are counted among the group that has emerged from the digital habitat. Overall, the company, which supports Aldi, Schalke 04 and Rossmann in questions of cyber security, analyzed the click behavior of 1350 users.
Second pair of words in need of explanation: phishing emails. These are e-mails in which criminals send a link or attachment under false pretenses in the hope that the recipient will click on it without knowing it. Of course, they disguise the sender address for this. In this way, the cybercriminals can then hack into a company or private network – and block access or fish data, for example. Phishing emails always work in a similar way. “There are three psychological techniques that are particularly successful,” says Niklas Hellemann, psychologist and head of Sosafe: curiosity, authority and financial incentives. The ideal phishing e-mail would therefore be a message from the supervisor ordering the employee to finally register using the link provided in order to collect the prize from the company’s internal raffle. Who wouldn’t click right away?
The expert suspects that younger people are more carefree with the Internet
In simulated phishing attacks offered by Hellemann’s company, almost 30 percent of digital natives click on the fraudulent links. Among colleagues who are older than 50 years, it is only 20 percent. Not very surprising for Hellemann, he has been observing the corresponding trend for years. What could be the reason? He suspects that the younger ones have learned to be careless through too much experience with good technology. “The technology that digital natives grew up with works so well that they never had to question it.” In addition, the younger ones are used to being generous with their data. After all, disclosing information about yourself on social media is part of it. Then why not give out his credit card number or company password?
And why stop there? Perhaps the problem with phishing emails could be solved in a completely different way, simply by making them superfluous. The corresponding data could be easily and conveniently packed into the email signature. Alternatively, you could also print them on analog business cards. So that the older colleagues also benefit from it. Or, Hellemann recommends, think a second longer before clicking on links and attachments in emails.