Executive Summary Banking organizations are gradually leading in the adoption of digital technologies to increase convenience in service delivery. While such trends are admirable, there exists an existential threat to the sustainability of the new frameworks. The vast and almost ubiquitous nature of the internet equips both genuine and malicious activities. The paradigm of cyber threat has been a menace in the online world. The e-banking services are particularly threatened by a longstanding but evolved risk of phishing attacks. The research aims at evaluating how human cognitive skills play a central role in defending against such attacks. In the same line, the study acknowledges a Heuristic-Systematic model of processing the information as a tool to inform training strategies for E-banking consumers. Subsequently, the paper proposes an experimental research design to measure the HSM-based training program’s effectiveness in improving consumers’ defenses against phishing attacks. Introduction Phishing is rated as one of the most successful digital deception attacks in the cybercrimes realm. Large and small organizations and individuals have reported cases of compromised credentials that have sometimes led to extreme direct financial losses or even blackmail. There has been perpetually growth in the complexity of tricks applied in phishing scams. Some known types include Malware-based phishing, keyloggers and Screen loggers, Session Hacking, Web trojans Spear Phishing and Content Injection Phishing (Vishwanath, Harrison, & Ng, 2018). Stakeholders and experts mandated with security concerns have developed detection criteria and security firewalls against these attacks. However, the continued prevalence shows that they do not provide sufficient protection. In March 2016, during election campaigns in America, John Podesta’s Gmail account received a phishing email. Interestingly, the scam managed to bypass their computer help desk, which saw it as a legitimate email from Google. The message was tailored to show security concerns and provided a shortened URL link for the campaign staff to secure the account by changing the password. Similar techniques have been used to hack accounts of prominent people and organizations, including Colin Powel and the Democratic National Committee. Notably, the 21st century ushered in an intense adoption and progress of information technologies in almost every industry. The banking sector is among the leading sectors as retail banks seek to obtain a competitive edge by responding to changes in the financial market. However, the new service channels have increasingly become prone to compromise due to phishing attacks. While different motives fuel such deception, a significant portion has been to obtain financial gain from the fraudulent activity. Therefore, the banking sector has been a lucrative venture for hackers who mostly prey on unwitting and mostly uninformed consumers. While there are advanced security features and tools against such cyber threats, a significant gap exists in engaging end-users cognitive defenses. It is expected that cybercriminals will progressively adjust their techniques to lure consumers into their traps. Therefore, the study is meant to determine and evaluat