Phishing emails continue to be one of the most common methods to effectively perpetuate malicious attacks on organisations around the globe.
Cybercriminals are constantly refining their strategies to stay up-to-date with market trends and outsmart end users and organisations by creating phishing email subjects that are realistic and believable. They prey on emotions and aim to cause distress, confusion, panic or even excitement in order to entice someone to click on a phishing link or malicious attachment.
KnowBe4’s 2023 Phishing by Industry Benchmarking Report reveals that nearly one in three users are likely to click on a suspicious link or comply with a fraudulent request.
Phishing tactics are changing with the increasing trend of cybercriminals using email subjects coming from HR related to dress code changes, training notifications, vacation updates and more. These are effective because they may cause a person to react before thinking logically about the legitimacy of the email and have the potential to impact an employee’s personal life and professional workday.
Holiday phishing email subjects were also utilized this quarter with four out of the five top holiday email subjects appearing to have come from HR. Incentives referring to national holidays such as Juneteenth and the Fourth of July, holiday celebrations and schedule changes were used as bait for unsuspecting end users.
Additionally, the report reflects the consistent trend of utilising IT and online service notifications as well as tax-related email subjects.