Cybercrime cost Canadians nearly $3.1 billion over past year
Cybercrime directly cost Canadians $3.09 billion over the past year, according to the newly released 2013 Norton Report.
That jaw-dropping figure reflects the 42 per cent of online adults who were victims of online malfeasance (ie: malicious software, phishing, identity theft, etc.) during the 12-month period ending Aug. 1, and the average cost of cybercrime per individual, which rose 127 per cent, to $383, from the year prior.
While previous reports focused on lack of security, the prevailing issue appears to be lack of common sense.
“Half the people surveyed sleep within arm’s reach of their phone. It’s become such an extension of what (Canadians) do every day that mindfulness of security is really being limited,” said Lynn Hargrove, director of consumer solutions at Symantec Canada, the parent company of Norton.
Risky social media behaviours, use of public or unsecured WiFi, and poor mobile security IQ are all cited as factors.
The 13,022-person survey suggests that 32 per cent of Canadian smartphone users, and 38 per cent of those worldwide, experienced mobile cybercrime over the past year. A further 60 per cent of Canadian mobile device owners, versus 57 per cent worldwide, said they weren’t aware that security solutions for such gadgets existed.
Forty-two per cent of Canadians don’t log off after each social media session, while 28 per cent share their social media passwords with others. And when it comes to public or unsecured WiFi, fully 60 per cent of respondents said they use it (50 per cent access email over such a connection, 51 per cent use it to access social media sites, 21 per cent to shop online, and — perhaps most shockingly — 24 per cent to do online banking).
“Everyone wants the ability to be connected anywhere, anytime, but it comes with a risk,” said Hargrove, noting that the consequences can entail “anything from obvious financial losses, like money out of your credit card or bank account, to lost dollars of work, to the cost of getting your information back.”
The 24-country survey was conducted online with adults age 18 to 64 between July 4 and Aug. 1. The global results are considered accurate within 0.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, while the Canadian data — which draws on 500 respondents — yields a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.
For more information on protecting yourself from cybercrime, go to www.GetCyberSafe.ca, a national awareness site led by Public Safety Canada.
( Oct.1, 2013)
