This summer, the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy invited citizens to participate in selected Citizen Science projects for the third time. The most dedicated citizen scientists were awarded prices at the end of November. One of this years’ eight projects was ‘Playing against Phishing’, which aims at showing how digital games can raise awareness of phishing attacks.
Social engineering attacks – such as phishing – account for about three-quarters of all cyber-attacks. Attacks are carried out by cybercriminals to gain access to sensitive data from individuals and companies by exploiting the human factor. In addition to technical measures, social protection measures must be taken. The project uses a game to train the skills needed to detect phishing emails in order not to become a victim of such attacks.
As part of the Citizen Science Award, all participants were invited to test the anti-phishing gaming environment and give feedback on the ongoing development of the game. The feedback served as a basis for ongoing improvements in the game PhishingWars. The Citizen Scientists were also tasked to bring in their own ideas and concepts for new mini-games. The best ideas and concepts are shortlisted for possible implementation in the EU-Projects DOGANA and COMPACT.
At the Citizen Science Award 2017, school classes of the HLW Freistadt were honoured for their contributions to the project ‘Playing against Phishing’. The school classes received prizes of up to 1,000 EUR. After a live demonstration of the PhishingWars game, Valentin Gattol and Michaela Reisinger from the Center for Technology Experience awarded the school classes their prizes.