According to a VIPRE Security Group report, 85% of phishing emails utilized malicious links in the content of the email, and spam emails increased by 30% from Q1 to Q2 2023. Information technology organizations also overtook financial institutions (9%) as the most targeted sector for phishing in Q2 as compared to VIPRE's previous quarterly report.
Furthermore, in Q2 2023, 58% of the malicious emails detected utilized nefarious content. Likewise, 42% of these emails involved malicious links. The efficacy of malicious content also explains why so many scam emails (48%) in Q2 were business email compromise (BEC) scams, as they typically favor content over links or attachments.