While “phishing” emails are the primary nuisance, young Canadians are more susceptible to setbacks using public Wi-Fi.
Vancouver, BC [December 18, 2025] – Only 35% of Canadians have not endured any of seven problems related to cybersecurity in the past three years, a new Research Co. poll has found.
In the online survey of a representative national sample, 38% of Canadians say they received a “phishing” email, where somebody attempted to acquire their personal information by masquerading as a trustworthy entity.
Just over a third of Canadians (34%) received an email offering them money for their help or assistance, in what is sometimes referred to as “Nigerian scam”, in the past three years.
Fewer than one-in-five Canadians say their computer became infected with a virus while they were browsing the Internet (17%), somebody hacked their social media platform (16%) or somebody hacked their email address (12%).
Fewer than one-in-ten Canadians faced two more drastic setbacks: somebody attempted to apply for a loan or open a line of credit using their name (9%) or somebody attempted to receive a tax refund using their name (6%).
More than two-in-five Canadians aged 35-to-54 and aged 55 and over (42% each) recall receiving a phishing email in the past three years. Almost one-in-four Canadians aged 18-to-34 (24%) experienced a hacking on social media.
About half of Canadians say they have checked their email (52%) or used social media (48%) while accessing Wi-Fi in public places, such as airports, cafes, transit hubs or university campuses.
Fewer Canadians relied on public Wi-Fi to access websites for news and information (34%), stream video content (30%), do online banking (26%), make online purchases (23%) or pay utility bills (14%).
“Canadians aged 18-to-34 are more likely to rely on public Wi-Fi to bank, purchase things and make service payments than their older counterparts,” says Mario Canseco, President of Research Co. “Very few Canadians aged 55 and over follow the same course of action.”
When asked about the level of trust they have on various entities to properly store and manage their personal data, almost four-in-five Canadians (78%) are “very confident” or “moderately confident” in their bank.
Majorities of Canadians feel the same way about their regional health authority (74%), their utility provider (70%), their telephone provider (68%), the federal government (63%), municipal governments (62%) and their provincial government (60%).
The level of confidence is lower—but still in majority territory—for each of these entities to properly deal with a cyberattack data breach.
Banks are once again at the top of the list (70%), followed by regional health authorities (62%), the federal government (also 62%), telephone providers (61%), provincial governments (59%), utility providers (also 59%) and municipal governments (54%).
Methodology: Results are based on an online survey conducted from November 21 to November 23, 2025, among 1,002 adults in Canada. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region in Canada. The margin of error—which measures sample variability—is +/- 3.1 percentage points, nineteen times out of twenty.
Find our data tables here and download the press release here.
For more information on this poll, please contact:
Mario Canseco, President, Research Co.
778.929.0490
[e] mario.canseco@researchco.ca