Inspiration
The inspiration for PhishNet stemmed from a growing frequency of receiving email phishing scams. As we rely on our emails for important information, such as with our career, academics, and so on, my team and I often encountered suspicious emails that raised doubts about their legitimacy. We realized the importance of having a tool that could analyze the trustworthiness of emails and help users make informed decisions about whether to engage with them or not.
What it does
PhishNet allows users to upload their exported emails onto the website, which will then scan the file information and give the user a rating or percentage of how trustworthy or legitimate the email senders are, how suspicious they or the links they send are, and as well as checking if any similar scam has been reported.
How we built it
Technologies Used
- React for frontend development
- Python for backend
- GoDaddy for domain name
- Auth0 for account sign in/sign up authentication (Unfinished)
- Procreate for mockups/planning
- Canva for logo and branding
Development Process
Frontend Design: We started by sketching out the user interface and designing the user experience flow through Procreate and Canva. React was instrumental in creating a sleek and responsive frontend design.
Backend Development: Using Python, we built the backend infrastructure for handling file uploads, parsing email data, and communicating with the machine learning models.
Unfinished: Sign In Authentication: Although we were unable to finish its full functionality, we used Auth0 for our sign in and sign up options, in order to provide users with the security they needed as even if it is just uploading emails, there is no denying the website needs to keep the privacy of each user.
Challenges we ran into
Data Preprocessing: Cleaning and preprocessing email data to extract relevant features for analysis posed a significant challenge. We had to handle various data formats and ensure consistency in feature extraction.
File Uploading/Input: We had to try several different libraries/open source code/ alternatives in general that would help us not only provide a clean, efficient file upload functionality, but also one we could use to check for user input validation and respond accordingly.
Finishing Everything: We took a lot of time to finalise our thoughts and pick the theme we wanted to explore for this year's hackathon. However, that also let to us underestimating how much time we were taking up unknowingly. I think that taught us to be more aware, and conscious of our time.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
- Creating a user-friendly interface for easy interaction.
- Handling complex data preprocessing tasks efficiently.
- Working as only a two-person team, which the each of us taking on new roles.
What we learned
Throughout the development process of PhishNet, we gained valuable insights into email security, phishing tactics, and data analysis. We honed our skills in frontend and backend development, as well as machine learning integration. Additionally, we learned about the importance of user feedback and iterative development in creating a robust application.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.