Key Takeaways from the KnowBe4 2025 Phishing Threat Trends Report

KnowBe4's Phishing Threat Trends Report (Sept 15, 2024–Feb 14, 2025) documents a significant rise in phishing activity—17.3% overall—with major shifts toward AI-polymorphic campaigns (present in >76% of phishing), increased ransomware payloads (22.6% increase, with sharper recent spikes), extensive use of compromised accounts and supply-chain vectors, and growing success bypassing SEGs through obfuscation, hijacked legitimate domains, and new payload techniques; the report also calls out targeted hiring-process attacks aimed at engineering and privileged roles.