Abstract:
With technological advancements, financial exploitation tactics have expanded into the online realm. Older adults may be particularly susceptible to online scams due to age- and Alzheimer\'s disease-related changes in cognition. In this study, 182 adults ranging from 18 to 90 years underwent cognitive assessment, genotyping for apolipoprotein E e4 (APOE4), and completed the lab-based Short Phishing Email Suspicion Test (S-PEST) as well as the real-life PHishing Internet Task (PHIT). Across both paradigms, older age predicted heightened susceptibility to phishing, with this enhanced susceptibility pronounced among older APOE4 allele carriers with lower working memory. Additionally, performance in both phishing tasks was correlated in that reduced ability to discriminate between phishing and safe emails in S-PEST predicted greater phishing susceptibility in PHIT. The current study identifies older age, APOE4, and lower cognition as risk factors for phishing vulnerability and introduces S-PEST as an easy-to-administer, ecologically valid tool for assessing phishing susceptibility.
摘要:
随着技术的进步,金融开发策略已经扩展到在线领域。由于年龄和阿尔茨海默病相关的认知变化,老年人可能特别容易受到在线诈骗的影响。在这项研究中,182名18至90岁的成年人接受了认知评估,载脂蛋白Ee4(APOE4)的基因分型,并完成了基于实验室的短网络钓鱼电子邮件怀疑测试(S-PEST)以及现实生活中的网络钓鱼任务(PHIT)。在这两种范式中,年龄较大预测对网络钓鱼的易感性增加,在具有较低工作记忆的较老的APOE4等位基因携带者中,这种增强的易感性明显。此外,两项网络钓鱼任务的性能相关,因为S-PEST中区分网络钓鱼和安全电子邮件的能力降低预示着PHIT中更大的网络钓鱼易感性.目前的研究发现年龄较大,APOE4和较低的认知作为网络钓鱼漏洞的风险因素,并引入S-PEST作为易于管理的,评估网络钓鱼敏感性的生态有效工具。