60% of Americans believe that they have never been a victim of cyber hacking or are unaware if they have. Statistics tell a different story; every day, more than a million people become a victim of cybercrime (Source).
In fact, in the U.S. alone, $15 billion was stolen from 13.1 million American consumers in 2015 (Source), prompting the question of why are Americans so confident about their own cybersecurity knowledge?
rate their security knowledge equal to or higher than Donald Trump
believe they’ve never been a victim of cyber hacking or are unaware if they have
admit to not being able to recognize a cyber crime unless contacted
by a
vendor or law enforcement
cite identity theft as the biggest cybersecurity issue facing consumers
believe the most important cybersecurity problem for businesses is securing customer
information
rank foreign espionage threats as the biggest cybersecurity issue for the U.S. Government
51% said identity theft is the #1 problem
54% said securing customer information is the #1 problem
72% rank hacking by foreign governments as the #1 problem
44% said espionage should have the severest penalties
believe they are as or more knowledgeable than Trump when it comes to cybersecurity
believe they’ve never been a victim of a cyber-attack
admitted to not being able to recognize a cyber crime unless contacted by a vendor or law
enforcement authorities.
44% are most concerned with protecting their social security number
54% trust online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon the most
don’t let the fear of hacks stop them from shopping online
believe they are more secure online if they don’t save credit card information
only use PayPal or other trusted payment methods when shopping online
95% are at least somewhat concerned. Gen-Xers are the most concerned with 25% being “very
concerned” compared to 17% of all other respondents
33% believe they are more secure online if they don’t save their credit card information
55% ranked hand delivering information yourself to be the best way
74% said they changed their password
76% are at least moderately concerned about hackers accessing their computers
45% admitted to not being able to recognize a cyber crime unless contacted by a vendor or law
enforcement authorities
To better understand current cybersecurity attitudes and concerns, Researchscape International surveyed 1,012 U.S. adults about their technological devices, cybersecurity knowledge and top concerns. Respondents were quota-sampled using 32 different cells (gender by age by region) to closely match the overall U.S. population.