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Social Engineering

We've curated 23 cybersecurity statistics about Social engineering to help you understand how attackers manipulate human psychology to gain sensitive information and access in 2025. These insights reveal the tactics used and the importance of awareness in combating these threats.

Showing 1-20 of 23 results

In Q4 2025, callback phishing increased from 3% to 18% of all phishing incidents, a 500% spike.

VIPRE Security Group2/9/2026
PhishingCallback Phishing

In 2025, 'ClickFix' social engineering techniques were used in 1% of phishing attacks.

Barracuda1/13/2026
PhishingPhishing Techniques

63% of retailers plan to invest significantly in generative AI for social engineering attacks.

LevelBlue11/16/2025
RetailGen AI

65% of organizations expressed serious concern about IT help desk bypass and social engineering attacks as a top threat.

RSA11/15/2025
IT help desk bypassSocial engineering

Nearly a third of leaders at financial services firms admit they are not fully confident employees could recognize an AI-driven phishing or social engineering threat.

Omega Systems10/15/2025
Financial services AI-driven attack

64% of surveyed enterprises confirmed social engineering attacks via encrypted or informal channels in the past 12 months.

Dune9/4/2025
EnterprisesSocial engineering

38% of organizations admit to being underprepared for AI-driven social engineering threats such as automated attacks, deepfake-based videos, and voice scams.

LevelBlue8/27/2025
AISocial engineering

AI-enhanced phishing and social engineering are the most concerning tactics (27%) for insider threats.

Exabeam8/21/2025
Insider threatAI

78% of security leaders identify social engineering and phishing as their top threat.

Gurucul8/21/2025
Social engineeringPhishing

Social engineering attacks accounted for 39% of initial access incidents observed during the first half of 2025.

LevelBlue7/30/2025

Fake CAPTCHA social engineering attacks, particularly ClickFix campaigns, jumped 1,450% from the second half of 2024 to the first half of 2025.

LevelBlue7/30/2025
Social engineeringCAPTCHA

44.7% of respondents cited phishing/social engineering as a top concerning threat.

Bitdefender6/24/2025
PhishingSocial engineering

51% of respondents consider AI-enhanced social engineering a fairly or extremely significant concern.

Bitdefender6/24/2025
AISocial engineering

44.7% of respondents cited phishing/social engineering as a top concerning threat.

Bitdefender6/24/2025
PhishingSocial engineering

Social engineering attacks (48%) and ransomware (34%) were the most common types of cyberattacks on healthcare organizations in the past year.

Omega Systems6/4/2025
HealthcareSocial engineering

28% of healthcare executives say they are likely to invest in generative AI for social engineering attacks.

LevelBlue6/4/2025
HealthcareAI

28% of healthcare executives say they are likely to invest in generative AI for social engineering attacks.

LevelBlue6/4/2025
HealthcareAI

56% of financial professionals cite social engineering as a significant tactic powered by AI.

Feedzai5/6/2025
Financial servicesFinancial fraud

Social Engineering was the second-most common incident pattern in the region, with phishing appearing in 19% of breaches in EMEA.

Verizon4/23/2025
Social engineeringPhishing

The FBI received 193,407 complaints about phishing/spoofing in 2024 (versus 298,878 in 2023 and 321,136 in 2022).

FBI4/23/2025
Social engineeringPhishing