Cybersecurity risks now reach almost every working adult, whatever their job. A new Kaspersky study of people across 14 professions found that incident rates ranged from 82% to nearly 90% in each group. It also shows that technical skills change the type of threat people face, but not whether they face one.
Kaspersky’s market research centre carried out the survey in March 2026. It covered 7,200 respondents in 18 countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Cybersecurity Risks Vary by Profession
Incident rates were lowest among people in administration and business support roles, at 82%. By contrast, they peaked at 89.7% among those in corporate risk, legal and compliance roles. So even the least-affected group still saw more than four in five people hit.
Across the full sample, the most common incidents were fraudulent calls and SMS (40.9%), spam (40.4%) and unwanted advertising (25.5%).
However, these everyday nuisances are not what worries people most. Instead, respondents pointed to harder-to-spot threats, led by data leakage (45.6%), hacking of social media accounts (44.6%) and theft of personal data (38.1%).
Tech Skills Change the Threat, Not the Risk
IT security professionals and others in technical roles, such as IT support and software development, saw fewer everyday nuisances. They were less likely to report fraudulent calls (36.3% vs. 42.7% for non-technical respondents) and spam (37.1% vs. 41.3%).
Still, their overall incident rate was higher, at 86% compared with 84.1%. They also faced more sophisticated threats than other respondents, including:
- Malware (11.3% vs. 8.5%)
- AI-driven fraud or deepfakes (9% vs. 6.3%)
- Attacks on smart devices (6.8% vs. 4.1%)
IT security respondents showed the sharpest version of this pattern. They faced fraudulent calls and spam at a quarter less than the average rate. Yet they still logged an above-average incident rate of 85.6%. In other words, technical fluency lowers exposure to obvious threats, but it does not give immunity.
Most People Change Habits, Not Tools
After an incident, most people adjust their own behaviour rather than add new tools. For example, 44.7% stopped answering calls from unknown numbers, while 36.5% stopped visiting untrusted websites. On the other hand, only 30.1% turned on multi-factor authentication, and just 24.3% installed protection software.
People in marketing roles reported the highest average number of distinct incidents, at 4.57 compared with 3.72 overall. However, they were also among the most active in building new habits afterwards. They avoided public Wi-Fi for transactions (42.4% vs. 24.1% overall), changed passwords more often (41.0% vs. 26.8%) and backed up their data (33.1% vs. 23.0%).
Those in corporate risk, legal and compliance roles sit at the other extreme. Although they reported the highest incident rate of any group, they did not turn to more advanced protection. Instead, they mostly relied on basic measures. These include ignoring unfamiliar numbers, using unique passwords and checking for their passwords in leaked databases.
How to Reduce Cybersecurity Risks in Any Job
Kaspersky recommends a few steps that apply to every profession:
- Turn on multi-factor authentication wherever it is available.
- Avoid using the same password across different accounts.
- Use a password manager to keep all credentials safe.
- Keep devices and software up to date.
- Choose protection that runs automatically across every device, rather than relying on spotting every warning sign.
“What this study makes clear is that there’s no single way to stay safe online, the right habits and the right protection depend on how people actually live and work,” said Vladimir Dashchenko, cybersecurity expert at Kaspersky.
He added that marketing professionals, compliance specialists, IT experts and everyone in between face a different mix of risks. As a result, protection should fit each person’s work and daily habits, rather than expecting everyone to be equally vigilant about everything.
“As scams become more diverse and increasingly powered by AI, our aim is to make that adaptive, automatic protection available to everyone,” he said.
What It Means for Southeast Asia
With Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam all part of the survey, the findings show how cybersecurity risks affect users across the region. As more payments and daily tasks move online, local platforms are also adding safeguards, such as ShopeePay’s online fraud protection in Malaysia.
Overall, the study suggests that managing cybersecurity risks should not rest on personal vigilance alone. With the right protection in place, people in any profession can manage their online lives with more confidence.
More details on the company’s consumer security solutions are available on the Kaspersky website.
