A Mobile Anti-Phishing System Using Linkguard Algorithm

Abstract

Phishing is a type of cyber-attack where the attacker deploys a combination of social engineering and technological skills to trick users into revealing private information like bank account details, usernames and passwords by creating an imitation of an existing web page. This research developed an Android-based anti-phishing system leveraging on the ubiquity of mobile devices and their increasing applications for business and personal purposes. The system was developed by implementing an end-host based algorithm called the Linkguard algorithm which is effective in detecting and preventing both known and unknown phishing attacks. A total of over 500 links which was a blend of both phishing and non-phishing links were collected from Phishtank and Alexa to validate the proposed system which achieved an accuracy of 96%. It is recommended that concerted efforts should be geared towards continuously sensitizing users to improve their phishing awareness as this cybercrime keeps evolving and users play a very crucial role in mitigating it. Keywords— android, cybercrime, Linkguard algorithm, mobile, phishing