Security News > 2021 > February > Which users are at higher risk of email-based phishing and malware?

Australian users are, for example, at a higher risk of being targeted that U.S.-based users, and older people are more likely to be targeted than youngsters.

The researchers have analyzed over 1.2 billion email-based phishing and malware attacks against Gmail users and have singled out some interesting findings.

The United States top the list of countries with the most email-based phishing and malware attacks by volume, but despite that, 16 other countries exhibited a higher risk on average than the U.S. These include DR Congo, Australia, The Netherlands, the U.K., Belgium, Finland, Japan, Lesotho, and Spain.

"There is some evidence of regional attackers: 78% of the attacks targeting users in Japan occured in Japanese, while 66% of attacks targeting Brazilian users occured in Portuguese," the researchers noted.

While nearly 90% of phishing emails directed at Dutch users and 80% of those directed at Spanish users are in English, French users are more likely to be hit with a phishing email in French.

"At the same time, we find that users who have proactively established a recovery mechanism face a higher odds of attack. These users would likely be better protected by strict two-factor authentication."

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