Simulation and Detection of Phishing Attacks on Student Academic Emails Using Social Engineering Techniques

Abstract

Phishing attacks on student academic emails are a serious threat to information security. Social engineering techniques are often used in these attacks to manipulate victims into divulging sensitive information, such as passwords and other personal data. This research aims to analyze and detect phishing attacks that use social engineering techniques on student academic emails. In this research, a phishing attack simulation was carried out with the scenario of falsifying the identity of an academic institution and creating fake emails that appear legitimate. Students as simulated subjects were tested to see how they reacted to deceptive phishing emails, such as clicking on malicious links or downloading infectious attachments. The detection methods used include heuristic analysis and machine learning techniques, where the system is trained to recognize suspicious patterns in emails, including elements such as unusual subjects, links and attachments. The research results show that phishing attacks that utilize social engineering are effective in manipulating victims. On the other hand, detection using machine learning and heuristic analysis can achieve a high level of accuracy in identifying phishing attacks. This research also underscores the importance of increasing awareness about cyber security among students as well as the need to develop more effective phishing detection tools.