Indian cybercrime victims don’t shun risky online behaviour: Norton

Indians who were victims of cybercrime within the past year often continued their unsafe behaviour, still sharing passwords and other risky steps online, a new report by Norton by Symantec revealed on Thursday.

The annual report titled "Norton Cyber Security Insights" found that 79 per cent of consumers know they must actively protect their information online but they still engage in online risky behaviour.

"Our findings show that people are increasingly growing aware of the need to protect their personal information online, but are not motivated to take adequate precautions to stay safe," Ritesh Chopra, Country Manager of Norton by Symantec, said in a statement.

For example, while these consumers were equally likely to use a password on every account, they were over twice as likely to share their password with others, negating their efforts.

Additionally, nearly one in five (18 per cent) consumers have at least one unprotected device, leaving their other devices vulnerable to ransomware, malicious websites, zero days and phishing attacks, the findings showed.

While quoting various reasons for not protecting their devices, 36 per cent said they do not do anything "risky" online and 23 per cent believed security measures would slow them down.

"While consumers remain complacent, hackers are refining their skills and adapting their scams to further take advantage of people, making the need for consumers to take some action increasingly important," Chopra added.

According to the findings, people who experienced cybercrime within the past year were more likely to be concerned about the security of their home Wi-Fi network (79 per cent versus 70 per cent non-victims), yet less likely to password protect their home Wi-Fi network than non-victims (28 per cent versus 10 per cent of non-victims have unprotected networks).

Only 56 per cent of consumers knew how to determine whether the Wi-Fi network they are using is secure. This is of concern especially since 22 per cent of respondents agreed to have used their neighbour's Wi-Fi network without their permission.

When it comes to public Wi-Fi, one in four (27 per cent) regularly use public Wi-Fi connections available at airports, coffee shops, etc.

"Further, one in three (33 per cent) Indians have either experienced ransomware themselves or know someone who has. Of those who have experienced ransomware, 83 per cent of the victims did so in the past one year alone, indicating a steady rise of this menace," the findings showed.