Are Your New Recruits Your Weakest Link? 71% Take the Phish Bait in Their First 90 Days, Keepnet Warns

LONDON, UK.  July 18. The honeymoon period for new employees is also open season for cybercriminals. Keepnet’s 2025 “New‑Hire Phishing Susceptibility Report”—spanning 237 organisations in finance, retail, healthcare, tech and more—reveals that 71 percent of employees hired within the past three months fall for a phishing email. In other words, nearly three out of four fresh faces are one click away from an incident.

Why the spike in risk? Onboarding often combines eagerness to impress with unfamiliar processes and a limited security context. Attackers know it—and exploit it.

New Hires Phishing Statistics

Metric	Insight
71 % susceptibility	New starters are hit hardest during onboarding.
44 % more vulnerable	Compared with colleagues who have passed the 90‑day mark.
30 % risk reduction	Achieved by firms that inject adaptive simulations and behaviour‑centric training into onboarding.
45 % higher success rate for CEO spoofs	Authority‑based lures trump experience every time, especially among newcomers.

Voices from the Front Line

“Our findings prove that security awareness is not a quarterly checkbox. It must start before the employee’s email account goes live.”
 — Ozan Ucar, CEO, Keepnet

“Day‑one orientation packs cover payroll forms, health benefits, hardware. Yet the first lesson for staying employed should be how not to get hacked. Push that message early and often.”
 —Simon Nicholls, VP of Keepnet

How Leading Organisations Flip the Script

Keepnet’s Extended Human Risk Management Platform gives security teams a head start, turning onboarding into a resilience accelerator rather than a liability:

• AI‑Driven Phishing Simulations that adapt to role, region, and behaviour.
  
• Gamified Dashboards that turn safe choices into friendly competition.
  
• Security Behaviour & Culture Metrics (dwell time, repeat‑offender rate) for measurable ROI.
  
• Automated Segmentation of high‑risk cohorts for laser‑focused coaching.

Companies adopting this approach report an 85 percent drop in user‑driven incidents.

Get the Full Report

Download the embargoed 2025 New‑Hire Phishing Susceptibility Report here:
 https://keepnetlabs.com/reports/new-hires-phishing-susceptibility-report

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About Keepnet

Keepnet is the Extended Human Risk Management (xHRM) platform that helps organisations shrink employee‑driven cyber risk through AI‑powered phishing simulations, behaviour‑shaping awareness training, and rapid incident response. Companies worldwide cut phishing susceptibility by up to 92 percent and respond to threats 168 times faster with Keepnet.

Media Contact
Keepnet Marketing Team
social@keepnetlabs.com

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