Many workers are overconfident at spotting phishing attacks

Date:
Mon, 17 Mar 2025 10:16:53 +0000

Description:
Experts warn overconfidence creates a false sense of security and opens the doors to cyberattacks.

FULL STORY ======================================================================
- KnowBe4 surveyed employees around the world to gauge their confidence in spotting phishing
- Many confident people have also fallen victim in the past
- Education and transparency are key to combating phishing, researchers said

Despite being confident in their ability to spot phishing, many employees
still fall for such scams, new research has claimed.

A report from KnowBe4 warns about misplaced confidence which can cause even more problems for businesses, showing almost all (86%) of respondents believe they can confidently identify phishing emails .

Yet more than half (53%) fell victim to some form of social engineering
scams: 24% fell for a phishing attack, 17% were tricked by a social media
scam, and 12% were tricked by a deepfake scam.

High confidence often leads to victimization

Employees in South Africa lead the way in both the highest confidence levels and highest scam victimization rate (68%), KnowBe4 explains, hinting that misplace confidence can create a false sense of security.

At the other end of the spectrum are UK employees, who reported the lowest
scam victim rate (43%). However, this figure too is down 5% compared to 2021, indicating that vulnerability is rising even in regions with historically
high confidence levels.

Training is paramount to combating phishing and social engineering, KnowBe4 says, adding that fostering a transparent security culture is equally important. While more than half (56%) of employees feel very comfortable reporting security concerns, 1 in 10 still hesitate, either out of fear, or uncertainty.

The Dunning-Kruger effect, which is a cognitive bias where people
overestimate their ability, is alive and well in cybersecurity, commented
Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy & Evangelist at KnowBe4.

This overconfidence fosters a dangerous blind spot - employees assume they
are scam-savvy when, in reality, cybercriminals can exploit more than 30 susceptibility factors, including psychological and cognitive biases, situational awareness gaps, behavioral tendencies, and even demographic
traits.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/many-workers-are-overconfident-at-spott ing-phishing-attacks

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