Bitdefender Releases 2025 Consumer Cybersecurity Survey

2025 has been the year artificial intelligence went mainstream – as did AI-powered scams. From deepfake voices to hyper-realistic phishing messages, the digital threat landscape is evolving faster than ever.

Bitdefender’s latest Consumer Cybersecurity Survey, based on insights from over 7,000 consumers across the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Australia, paints a clear picture of this new reality: convenience and complacency are colliding with unprecedented cyber risk.

Our research reveals a paradox at the heart of modern digital life. People know what they fear most – financial loss, scams and identity theft. Yet, their habits often make these threats more likely. Social media, once a place to share memories and engage with friends and loved ones, has become Scam Central; while the device we trust most – our phone – is often not fully protected.

Key findings

• AI scams dominate public concern. 37% of consumers say their top fear around AI is its use in creating sophisticated scams like deepfakes and voice clones.
• Social media is the new scam delivery system: Nearly 7 in 10 respondents encountered scams of some type, and 1 in 7 consumers fell victim to a scam in the past year, with social media now surpassing email as the top attack vector (34%); Younger users, who post and share the most on social media, are twice as likely to be scammed (20%) compared to older generations (9.7%).
• The phone problem: While 53% of consumers use mainly their personal phones for transactions, almost as many (48%) don’t use a dedicated mobile security solution.
• Convenience kills security: 48% of consumers “accept all” cookies without review while surfing the web, and 37% still write down passwords instead of using secure managers.
• Trust in tech giants is divided: The most trusted players in Big Tech remain Google (88%), Microsoft (85%), and Apple (77%), while X/Twitter (52%), TikTok (51%), and OpenAI (45%) rank among the least trusted.
• Money remains the biggest fear: 53% cite financial loss as their top cybersecurity concern (far ahead of identity theft, at 17%), but their daily habits around cybersecurity make those exact threats more likely.

Our findings show that, while consumers are aware of the dangers, they continue to trade safety for speed and convenience. In an era when scammers use AI to scale deception, common sense alone is no longer enough to defend oneself.

Download the complementary Bitdefender 2025 Consumer Cybersecurity Survey for a comprehensive look at today’s threat landscape – and learn what you can do to stay one step ahead.