Cybercrime 2012 Report Claims 70% of Canadians Struck By Cybercriminals

By: Kevin Green  |   November 3rd, 2012   |   News, O Canada

Anti-virus software maker, Norton, released the Cybercrime 2012 report recently in which the company highlighted that “70% of online adults in Canada have been the victim of cybercrime at some point in their life.” That is staggering percentage and totals almost eight million people over the course of the year. Norton’s Cybercrime 2012 report also shows that Canadians lose $1.4 billion per year to cybercrime, making the average cost per crime victim above $160.

 

Online security once again came to the forefront when the Canadian Internet Registration Authority completed a study in which it stated that the top concern for Canadians using the internet is security. The research for the report was conducted using the Canadian Internet Forum initiative.

 

Bryan Holland, CEO for CIRA, spoke about the alarming trend and said, “It comes as no surprise that Canadians identified security as a top challenge. As the Internet becomes more integral to our social and economic landscape, it is inevitable that there will be greater volumes of criminal activity to exploit that.”

 

Further data shows that users are not safe anywhere online from cybercrime including social networks and mobile devices. Social or mobile cybercrime has bitten 16% of adults in Canada and a whopping 37% of users on social network have become victims of cybercrime.

 

The other interesting conclusion from the reports is that Canadians are not prepared to battle cybercrime. According to the report, 21% of Canadian internet users do not know how to prevent cybercrimes and don’t know about the risks. Furthermore, 34% of users do not grasp the fact that malware can work without them noticing in the background. Another interesting fact is that one-third of people do not create complex passwords to protect online accounts and do not frequently change their passwords to thwart cybercriminals.

Source: TechVibes