Overview
- The study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences analyzed simulated phishing tests and found click rates rose from 15.56% to 17.76% after the spring 'spring forward' shift, a roughly 13% relative increase in susceptibility.
- Researchers used data from more than 11,000 employees at a large unnamed company who routinely received fake phishing emails as part of an ongoing cybersecurity awareness program and compared behavior on the Monday before and the Monday after the clock change.
- Lead author Dr. Eitan Schechtman says the one-hour sleep loss mirrors small, common sleep reductions and can impair everyday decision-making in ways that extend beyond email security.
- The authors urge employers and cybersecurity vendors to plan short-term mitigations—such as extra training, delayed high-risk tasks, or heightened email filtering—around DST and other events that reduce sleep.
- The finding gains urgency against a rising threat landscape, with the FBI’s IC3 reporting over one million complaints in 2025 and estimated U.S. cybercrime losses above $20 billion, and it feeds current U.S. policy debate over making Daylight Saving Time permanent versus adopting permanent Standard Time.