Utrecht, 20 January 2022 – KnowBe4, provider of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulation phishing platform, presents the results of its Q4 2021 phishing report, which mapped the titles of tens of thousands of email messages worldwide.

“When the results of phishing emails in the United States are compared to those in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), the contents of emails in the United States seem to come from companies targeting security warnings about users and passwords. “However, in EMEA, a large number of topics are related to the user’s daily tasks, and the text of the lesson seems to be customized to make the user click.”

As expected in the fourth quarter of 2021 KnowBe4 saw holiday-related phishing email topics, especially about shopping during the holidays.

The most common topics of phishing emails were also broken so that a comparison could be made between those in the United States and those in the EMEA. In the fourth quarter of 2021, KnowBe4 surveyed tens of thousands of course lines from simulated phishing tests. The company also looked into the subject lines of emails actually received from emails that users reported to their IT industry as suspicious. The results are below.

Most Common Phishing Email Topics:

United Nations

• Password verification is required immediately
• Important: Clothing code changes
• Holiday policy update
• Significant social media policy change
• Discounts for employees on Amazon for your holiday shopping

EMEA

• Accept the invitation – Staff meeting via groups
• Employee Portal – Time card not submitted
• The link for your review is attached
• Requires immediate password verification
• [[company_name]]Invoice

* Caps and misspellings are the same as in the course of the fishing test.

** Emails headlines contain a combination of simulated phishing templates created by KnowBe4 for clients and custom tested by KnowBe4 clients.

Common ‘wild’ attacks:

• Information Technology: Cloud Registration
• Special project information
• You have some new news
• Teams events
• Microsoft: Personal shared document retrieved

* Caps and misspellings are the same as in the course of the fishing test.

** ‘In-the-Wild’ email headlines are genuine emails received by users and reported to their IT departments as suspicious. They are not simulated phishing test emails.

For more information on KnowBe4, visit http://www.knowbe4.com.