Indians more alert than Americans, online

Young geeks in the US are less likely to identify phishing than their Indian counterparts

Indians more alert than Americans, online

Young geeks in the US are less likely to identify phishing than their Indian counterparts

What do Rina Dhaka, Mani Shankar Aiyar and a professor from IIT have in common? Their e-mail accounts were hacked at some point or the other due to one bad click at the wrong link.

The links that they clicked on unsuspecting led them to a phishing website. This is where the problem starts.

A lot of people doesn't know how to tell a phishing website from a clean url address. In India 76 percent of the web users in India are unable to identify rogue websites and thus are vulnerable to fraud. However, the percentage is much lower than those in the US and Australia.

According a survey commissioned by cyber security firm VeriSign, those in the age group of 18-24 are most alert to phishing attacks followed by those aged 45-54. India is also the only country where there is no difference between men and women in their ability to identify a phishing website.u00a0

Rajiv Chadha, Vice President, VeriSign India said, "India has a huge population that is active online and it is very important to have the know how to identify phishing sites as netizens provide a variety of personal details online. Phishing continues to be a major challenge for online retailers."

"It only takes one phishing attack to dramatically reduce the web browsing public's trust in a retailer. Once that trust is lost, it is very difficult to regain," he said.

Uncle Sam most vulnerable
Of the seven countries included in the research the United States, Germany, Sweden, Australia, India, Denmark and the United Kingdom the United States is the least likely to identify the tell tale signs of a phishing site that were tested for in the survey. In addition, the United States is the only country where the youngest section of the population, those between 18 and 24, is the least likely age group to identify a phishing site.

Vital Stats
>>88 Per cent of American web users unable to spot phishing sites
>>86 Per cent of Australian web users unable to spot phishing sites
>>UK: men 12% more likely to spot the phishing sites

How to tell fake from real
>>https:// The "s" in https:// means the site is encrypted, so the information you enter is secured.u00a0 While some phishing sites do have a secured Web address, many do not.u00a0 Therefore, site visitors should be on the lookout for missing security on sites that should have it.
>>The padlock icon:u00a0 To be meaningful this icon must appear in the actual browser interface and not inside the content of the page itself.
>>Trust marks: Simple visual cues in the form of popular logos can show that a Web site is authenticated, secured, and the company is reputable.
>>Check the Web address:u00a0Be suspicious of any site with an unknown domain that contains the name of a well-known site in the latter part of the Web address.
>>Green address bar:u00a0This signifies that this site has undergone extensive identity authentication so that you can be confident it is the site it claims to be.