Many employees and students at the University of Twente are not sufficiently alert to phishing attempts. A quarter of students and 29 percent of employees clicked last week on a link in a fake phishing message that had been circulated as part of an awareness campaign. This reports the Twente university magazine UToday.
UTwente has over thirteen thousand students and some 3,500 employees. To test the cyber-awareness among them, the university sent a phishing message resembling real ones, urging them to quickly change their passwords. Of both students and employees, 43 percent opened the message, project leader Wim Olijslager of the Library, ICT Services & Archiving (Lisa) department tells UToday. Subsequently, 25 percent of students and 29 percent of employees clicked on the link in the email.
There were considerably more clicks on the message and phishing link than a similar action in 2022, Olijslager said. Back then, 25 percent of students and 19 percent of employees clicked on the link. He adds that last week's phishing message was more realistic than last year's. It was completely in the university's house style, while last year it looked like a message from a package delivery company.
