Wisevoter
World

Phishing Volume Rises 29.8%, Spear Phishing Surges

KnowBe4's Phishing Threat Trends Report, Vol. 8, finds attackers shifting from mass scams to targeted, research-driven campaigns.

Updated on Nov. 3, 2026 in Cybersecurity

Bold flat-color editorial illustration of a single barbed fishing hook suspended over still dark water, evoking precise, targeted phishing threats.
KnowBe4's Phishing Threat Trends Report, Vol. 8, found phishing volume rose 29.8% year over year, with spear phishing surging 41.1% as attackers shift to targeted campaigns. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

Live Poll

Do you feel your email is getting safer from scams than a year ago?

KnowBe4 released its Phishing Threat Trends Report, Vol. 8, showing overall phishing volume grew 29.8% year-over-year. Spear phishing rose 41.1% while mass, low-effort commodity fraud declined.

Why it matters

The findings indicate attackers are investing in pre-attack research and tailored approaches rather than indiscriminate campaigns, which makes detection harder for organizations. Defenders may need to focus on targeted impersonation and reconnaissance-driven threats rather than only bulk spam filtering.

Dangerous mail averages one message per 733 received, with malware making up 6.7% of dangerous mail in the UAE versus 2.9% globally. Mobile-focused lures account for 10.0% of dangerous mail in the UAE compared with 2.7% globally, and toolkit-driven phishing grew 54%, representing 29.2% of inbound malicious mail.

The players

KnowBe4

KnowBe4 is a security awareness training and phishing simulation company that publishes recurring threat-trend research on social engineering attacks.

The details

Threat actors are hosting fake developer consoles, sign-in prompts, and download hubs directly on native AI platform domains, and using generative AI and agentic tools to turn breaking news headlines into active phishing lures. Company impersonation rose 28%, and pre-attack scouting increased 33.7%.

Timeline

  1. Q2 2026 served as the baseline quarter for comparing legitimate-infrastructure attack origination.

  2. Q3 2026 saw attacks become two times more likely to originate from legitimate infrastructure than in Q2.

  3. KnowBe4 published the Phishing Threat Trends Report, Vol. 8 on November 3, 2026.

Season Trajectory

This edition extends KnowBe4's recurring Phishing Threat Trends Report series, which tracks how phishing tactics change over successive volumes. The shift toward spear phishing and reconnaissance-driven attacks marks a departure from the mass, low-effort campaigns that dominated earlier editions.

Employees face a higher chance of receiving convincing, personalized emails impersonating companies they deal with, so verifying unexpected requests through a separate channel becomes more important. Organizations can reduce risk by reviewing reconnaissance-driven threats and ensuring staff can recognize tailored lures rather than only bulk spam.

The takeaway

Targeted phishing is growing faster than mass spam, so verifying unexpected requests through a separate channel is now a more important habit than spotting obvious scam emails. Security teams should prioritize impersonation and reconnaissance-based threats in their awareness training.

Further reading

Explore more on Cybersecurity threats and defenses in the broader tech landscape.

Source note: This article includes information reported by Middleeastevents.

Live Poll

Do you feel your email is getting safer from scams than a year ago?