An analysis over more than a billion emails yielded some interesting stats when comparing work email versus personal email.
The numbers, compiled and reported by Google Research, show that work email is much more prone to hacking attempts, which makes sense. A compromised work email account can yield a lot more money than a personal account can.
Here are some of the findings:
- A work email account is:
- 4.3 time more likely to receive malware
- 6.2 times more likely to receive a phishing email
- 0.4 times less likely to receive spam
- Top 10 (11, actually, because of ties) industries targeted by phishing, from most to least:
- Finance and insurance
- Entertainment
- IT
- Transportation
- Housing
- Health
- Retail/Science (tied)
- Wholesale
- Construction/Manufacturing (tied)
- Top 10 industries targeted by malware, from most to least:
- Real Estate
- Transportation
- Construction
- Utilities
- Retail
- Accommodations & Food
- Mining
- Administrative
- IT
- Manufacturing
- Top 10 industries targeted by spam, from most to least:
- Entertainment
- IT
- Housing
- Retail
- Health
- Accommodation & Food
- Construction
- Science
- Transportation
- Management
Here’s the presentation in its entirety.