In 2020 during the height of Covid-19, Google fought against over 18 million daily malware and phishing email attacks related to the pandemic according to reports.
Google collaborated with Stanford University reviewing over a billion phishing and malware emails and their anonymized targets found the following conclusions:
- Users in the United States were the most popular targets (42% of attacks), followed by the United Kingdom (10% of attacks), and Japan (5% of attacks).
- Most attackers don’t localize their efforts, using the same English email template for users in multiple countries.
- Having your email or other personal details exposed in a third-party data breach increased the odds of being targeted by phishing or malware by 5X.
- With respect to demographics, the odds of experiencing an attack was 1.64X higher for 55- to 64-year-olds, compared to 18- to 24-year-olds.
- Mobile-only users experienced lower odds of attack: 0.80X compared to multi-device users. This may stem from socioeconomic factors related to device ownership and attackers targeting wealthier groups.
- Users can defend themselves against phishing attacks if they know how to spot them. New-school security awareness training with simulated phishing attempts can help your employees recognize and thwart social engineering attacks.
Google has the story.