Malicious email attacks grew 15% in 2025: Kaspersky

Malicious email attachments rose by 15% in 2025, as spam accounted for nearly half of global email traffic, according to new data released by Kaspersky, the cybersecurity firm.

A company briefing states that Kaspersky’s telemetry shows 44.99% of all email traffic last year was classified as spam, much of it containing scams, phishing links or malware. More than 144 million malicious or potentially unwanted email attachments were detected during the year.

The Asia-Pacific region recorded the highest share of email antivirus detections at 30%, followed by Europe at 21%. Latin America accounted for 16%, the Middle East 15%, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States 12%, and Africa 6%. At the country level, China registered the largest share of detections at 14%, followed by Russia at 11%. Mexico and Spain each accounted for 8%, while Turkey represented 5%, as per the press release.

Detection activity peaked in June, July and November, reflecting periods of heightened campaign activity. Kaspersky said it observed increasingly complex tactics, including the use of multiple communication channels to support scams, phishing links embedded in QR codes, and the misuse of legitimate platforms to distribute spam. The company also reported more convincing business email compromise attempts, including fabricated forwarded messages designed to appear authentic.