Seven of 10 people say that it’s harder to secure their information on digital platforms than it is to secure their own home, according to a new global survey conducted for Mastercard. It’s not just the degree of difficulty — remembering a host of passwords and juggling one-time passcodes vs. turning a key or arming an alarm. It’s the scale of the cyber threat: A thousand burglars aren’t trying to pick your lock every minute of the day.
Last year, losses and damages from cyberattacks came to $9.5 trillion, according to Cybersecurity Ventures, making cybercrime the third-largest economy in the world — and growing, thanks to the widespread availability of AI tools to supercharge scams and accelerate attacks.
The risks of living in always-on world are sinking in, with 76 percent of survey respondents more concerned about cyber risks impacting their life than they were two years ago. Well over half say they think about cybersecurity and online safety at least weekly — even more than they think about their own job security.
The survey, conducted last month by the Harris Poll of 13,077 adults across 13 countries, also revealed that younger people are more likely to fall for online fraud, that people would feel too ashamed to report the crime, and, perhaps most worryingly, that nearly 60 percent say that fraud is so pervasive that being scammed is simply inevitable.
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