Phishing
A social engineering attack using fraudulent communications (email, text, voice) to trick recipients into revealing sensitive information, clicking malicious links, or downloading harmful attachments. Phishing begins roughly 16 percent of breaches in Verizon's 2025 data, and AI now assists a large and growing share of phishing attacks.
Defined in 2 GAGE programs, which carry 4 distinct definitions of it. The wording above is taught in AI Literacy & Professional Conduct.
How each discipline defines it
The same term does different work depending on who is using it. These are the definitions as each program teaches them, unedited.
A social engineering attack using fraudulent communications (email, text, voice) to trick recipients into revealing sensitive information, clicking malicious links, or downloading harmful attachments. Phishing begins roughly 16 percent of breaches in Verizon's 2025 data, and AI now assists a large and growing share of phishing attacks.
An attempt to trick a person into revealing sensitive information, such as a password or a one time code, typically through a fake but convincing website, email, or message designed to resemble a real, trusted source.
A social engineering attack where a fraudulent message attempts to trick the recipient into revealing sensitive information or clicking a malicious link. Proofpoint research presented in 2025 found users were 46% more likely to click phishing links generated by large language models than human-written ones.
A fraudulent message that tries to make the recipient click a malicious link, open a malicious attachment, enter credentials on a fake page, or reply with sensitive information. AI made it fluent, personalized, and high-volume.
Where it is taught
The exact lessons this term appears in. The first 7 topics of every program are free with a free account.
- Digital Readiness Self-Audit · Digital Foundations, AI Literacy & Professional Conduct
- Online Safety, Privacy, and Data Basics · Digital Foundations, AI Literacy & Professional Conduct
- AI-Specific Threat Detection · AI Security Fundamentals, AI Literacy & Professional Conduct
- Your email is the master key: a password manager and two factor · The Hardening Lab, Senior AI Scam Defense
Terms it appears with
Not an alphabetical neighbourhood: these are the terms taught in the same lessons, ranked by how often they appear together.