What is the most clicked subject line? These days the most successful email lures are not promising riches or messages of despair from a Nigerian Prince, but instead, security warnings or urgent office messages that look legit even to technically-savvy users.
Cybercriminals are clever in their phishing attempts with subject lines and urgent messages to immediately check or change passwords. They use social media platforms and effectively trick users, most notably – LinkedIn. When LinkedIn is in the subject line of a phishing email the success rate is 55% and Facebook following with 28%.
End-users should beware of email offers that seem too good to be true, such as vacation giveaways and anything free. Identifying phishing attacks from legitimate emails is tricky, especially for users without any training. Cybersecurity training is extremely important and necessary for end-users to be able to identify red flags and think before they click.
Top 10 most-clicked phishing email subject lines:
(This also represents the actual capitalization and spelling used in the original phishing subject lines.)
- Change of Password Required Immediately 26%
- Microsoft/Office 365: De-activation of Email in Process 14%
- Password Check Required Immediately 13%
- HR: Employees Raises 8%
- Dropbox: Document Shared With You 8%
- IT: Scheduled Server Maintenance – No Internet Access 7%
- Office 365: Change Your Password Immediately 6%
- Avertissement des RH au sujet de l’usage des ordinateurs personnels 6%
- Airbnb: New device login 6%
- Slack: Password Reset for Account 6%
To sign-up for cybersecurity training or a security presentation for your end-users, feel free to call us at 918.436.1830!