Exploratory Lens Model of Decision-Making in a Potential Phishing Attack Scenario

Published

October 10, 2017

Author(s)

Franklin Tamborello, Kristen K. Greene

Abstract

Phishing, the transmission of a message spoofing a legitimate sender about a legitimate subject with intent to perform malicious activity, causes a tremendous and rapidly-increasing amount of damage to American information systems and users annually. This project implements an exploratory computational model of user decision making in a potential phishing attack scenario. The model demonstrates how contextual factors, such as message subject matter match to current work concerns, and personality factors, such as conscientiousness, contribute to users' decisions to comply with or ignore message requests.

Citation

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR) - 8194

Report Number

8194

NIST Pub Series

NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

Download Paper

DOI Link

Keywords

cybersecurity, lens model, usable security

Citation

Tamborello, F. and Greene, K. (2017), Exploratory Lens Model of Decision-Making in a Potential Phishing Attack Scenario, NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.IR.8194 (Accessed October 8, 2025)