59% Indians suffered a cybercrime in last 12 months: Report
NortonLifeLock has released its 2021 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report. The report suggests that about 59% of Indian adults experienced a cybercrime in last 12 months. On the global scale, nearly 330 million people experienced a cybercrime in the same duration. The report is based on a survey of 10,000 adults in 10 countries, including 1000 adults in India.
The report goes on to understand the emotional response of victims. It suggests that 36% Indians were able to identify unauthorized access to their account or device. 49% of them felt angry or stressed, while 42% felt scared, 38% felt vulnerable, and 30% felt powerless.
Does that make people invest in cybersecurity?
Not substantially. While the victims spent 1.3 billion (2.7 globally) hours trying to resolve the issues, only 36% of them invested in cybersecurity software or re-subscribed to any pre-existing software.
However, the report concludes that “Most Indian adults are concerned about data privacy (75%) and want to do more to protect it (77%). In fact, 76% are proactively looking for better ways to protect their privacy and 9 in 10 (90%) have taken steps to protect their online activities and personal information, nearly three-quarters of whom (74%) say they have done so due to changes in lifestyles and work environment since the pandemic began. Some of the most common steps taken are making passwords stronger (43%) and limiting information shared on social media (36%),”.
How to report a cybercrime?
Indian authorities have also noticed the surge in cybercrimes. The government, in a written reply to the Parliament, said that the cyber crime reporting portal received more than 3 lakh complaints in the last 18 months.
We have comprehensive guides available for you. If you fall for any financial fraud, you can straightaway dial 155260. If that doesn’t work, here’s some help. You can also read our detailed guides for sextortion scams if that is what you have encountered.
But prevention is any day better than cure. You should also try to understand how cyber criminals use your data to commit a cybercrime to take preventive measures. You can take steps to avoid falling for a phishing campaign.
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