Cyber security for a Smart Grid - What about phishing?

Lack of awareness for cyber security threats is an important topic to address for the future smart grid. A particularly troubling issue is social engineering by email, or as it is more commonly depicted, phishing. This study analyzes important aspects of phishing using two unannounced experiments. The results show that applying more context specific information to an attack is not necessarily effective; users still get deceived but nobody reports of the occurrence of phishing. From an enterprise perspective, a phishing exercise rouse discussions on security awareness without significantly agitating participants.