Over 30% of employees open phishing emails, higher than global average

Internal communication phishing emails had the highest click rate.

The results of Singapore's first coordinated phishing exercise held as part of Exercise SG Ready (ESR) 2025 have revealed that more than 30% of the phishing emails were opened and 17% of the recipients clicked the phishing link, 8% higher than the average global phishing rate.

This suggests that a significant number of employees may be susceptible to real-world phishing attacks.

Additionally, approximately 5% of employees reported a phishing attempt, which is 13% lower than the global industry reporting rate of 18%.

According to the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), this underscores the need for enhanced security awareness and reporting protocols.

The click rates between large companies and SMEs were closely tied, indicating that both large and small companies are equally susceptible to phishing attacks.

Amongst the different types of phishing emails sent, those on internal communications garnered the highest click rate, suggesting that employees generally were less guarded about the authenticity of emails claiming to originate from within the organisation.

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