Background: Various security interventions to support users in detecting phishing emails exist including providing the URL in a tooltip or the statusbar.
Aim: Designing and evaluating an anti-phishing artifact based on the Useful Transparency theory.
Method:}We used the design science research approach for the entire process. As evaluation we ran a between-subjects study with 109 participants from the UK to determine the anti-phishing artifact effectiveness to support users distinguishing between phishing and legitimate emails.
Results: Our results show that, when compared against the state of the art security interventions (displaying the URL in the statusbar), our anti-phishing artifact increase the detection significantly, i.e. phishing detection increased from 50% to 72%.
Conclusion: Albeit further studies are required, the evaluation demonstrate that the Useful Transparency theory can result in promising security interventions. Thus, it might be worth considering it for other security interventions, too
