Hackers stole $172 billion USD from 978 million consumers in 2017

According to a Norton Cyber Security Insight Report from cybersecurity company Symantec, hackers stole $172 billion USD from 978 million consumers in 20 countries in 2017.
 
The report says cybercrime victims are most often consumers who use multiple devices and have a blind spot when it comes to cyber security basics. Victims use the same password across multiple accounts or even share their passwords with others.
 
Other statistics state 39 percent of cybercrime victims trust in their abilities to protect their data and personal data, and 33 percent believe they are at low risk.
 
While the report doesn’t mention Canadian statistics, it does say 143 million consumer were victims of cybercrime in the U.S. Total losses reported equal to the amount of $19.4 billion and each of the victims lost nearly 20 hours to dealing with the repercussions.
 
The report also indicated that it didn’t matter which type of security safety measures the victim used, including fingerprint sensor, facial recognition, pattern matching, personal VPN, two-factor authentication and voice ID.
 
The respondents also showed some confusion as to how cyber criminals should be treated. The report indicates nearly 25 percent of people believe stealing information online is not as bad as stealing property in ‘real life.’ Further, 41 percent of consumers believe its acceptable to commit immoral questionable online behaviours, such as reading someone’s email.
 
The Norton Cyber Security report surveyed 21,549 individuals ages 18 and older across 20 markets. The margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 0.7 percent. Norton collected the data October 5th to October 24th through research firm Reputation Leaders.

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