Cybersecurity incidents affect people across professions at similarly high rates, but the kinds of threats they encounter differ, according to a Kaspersky survey of 7,200 people in 18 countries. The study found reported incident rates ranged from 82% among people in administration and business support to 89.7% among those working in corporate risk, legal and compliance roles.
Fraudulent calls and text messages were the most commonly reported incidents, affecting 40.9% of respondents, followed closely by spam at 40.4%. But respondents were more worried about less visible risks: data leakage (45.6%), hacked social media accounts (44.6%) and personal-data theft (38.1%).
Technical expertise shifts the threats
People in technical roles reported fewer nuisance incidents, including fraudulent calls and spam, than non-technical respondents. Yet their overall incident rate was higher: 86%, compared with 84.1% among non-technical respondents. Technical respondents also reported more encounters with malware, AI-enabled fraud or deepfakes, and attacks on smart devices.
The results suggest that cybersecurity knowledge may help people avoid some familiar scams, but it does not eliminate exposure. Instead, professionals may face a different mix of threats.
Habits change more than security tools
Following an incident, respondents were more likely to change their online behavior than to adopt additional security tools. Some 44.7% said they stopped answering calls from unknown numbers, while 36.5% avoided untrusted websites. By comparison, 30.1% enabled multi-factor authentication and 24.3% installed protection software.
Marketing-related workers reported the highest average number of distinct incidents, at 4.57 compared with 3.72 across all respondents. They also reported taking several protective steps more often than average, including avoiding public Wi-Fi for transactions, changing passwords and backing up data.
Study points to tailored protection
Kaspersky recommends using multi-factor authentication, avoiding password reuse, keeping devices and software updated, and using protection that works automatically across devices. The company’s Vladimir Dashchenko said security practices should reflect people’s work and everyday online habits, rather than assume everyone faces the same risks.
Kaspersky’s market research center conducted the survey in March 2026. It included respondents from 14 professions across 18 countries.
