Income distribution is the way earnings are spread across people or households in an economy. A “wide” or unequal distribution means a small group earns much more than the rest, while a “narrow” distribution means incomes are more evenly shared. Analysts measure it with tools such as percentiles, quintiles, and the Gini coefficient.
In cyber security, income distribution matters because financial inequality changes exposure and resilience. Lower-income users may rely on older devices, shared accounts, or less frequent software updates, which can increase risk. Attackers often exploit these conditions with phishing, fake job offers, loan scams, and payment fraud aimed at people under economic pressure. Defenders use income and other demographic data carefully to identify vulnerable groups, design better security awareness, and prioritize low-cost protections such as MFA, patched browsers, and fraud monitoring. The term also matters in policy work, where governments and companies assess who benefits from digital systems and who bears the security costs.