Half of India’s Net users victims of cyber crime

A new report from a cyber security firm has found that about half of India’s online population or about 113 million Indians were affected by online crime in the last one year.

“Our findings reveal that consumer reservations are indeed grounded in reality. In the past year, 48 per cent of India’s online population or approximately 113 million Indians were affected by online crime,” said Ritesh Chopra, country manager, India at Norton by Symantec, the firm that conducted the survey.

Indian consumers affected by cybercrime lost on average 29.6 hours compared to an average of 21 hours across the 17 countries surveyed. On the other hand, an Indian lost an average of ₹16,558 compared to the global average of ₹23,878 ($358). The financial cost to victims takes into account any amounts stolen, the cost of fraud, repairs and theft of mobile device.

Online behaviours Despite the concern and awareness towards cybercrime, consumers are overconfident of their online security behaviours, according to Symantec. When asked to grade their security practices, consumers consistently award themselves a solid “A”. But in reality, most are not passing the most basic requirement of online security: password use.

Passwords Of those using passwords, less than half (41 per cent) always use a secure password – a combination of at least eight letters, numbers and symbols. Worryingly, over one in three do not have a password on their smartphone or desktop, the study noted.

People are also sharing passwords to online sensitive accounts with friends and family. Of those sharing passwords, more than one in three share the password to their banking account, and on an average they are sharing passwords for two accounts, with the most common passwords shared being email (60 per cent), and social media (54 per cent).

Baby Boomers, a group often considered less tech savvy – report more secure online habits than Millennials.

While Millennials, born in the digital era, often throw caution to the wind with 31 per cent admitting to sharing passwords and other risky online behaviour.

“Even though Millennials have been immersed in online technology most of their lives, they are more reckless in many ways with only one in four believing they have most responsibility when an online crime occurs,” Chopra added.

While four in 10 Millennials believe that they aren’t “interesting enough” to be a target of online crime, it was found that more than seven in 10 Millennials in India have ever experienced a form of cybercrime; with every second Millennial (54 per cent) experiencing it in the last 12 months alone.