59% of Indian adults fell prey to cybercrime in the past 12 months: Report

According to the report, 7 in 10 Indian adults (70%) believe that remote work has made it much easier for hackers and cybercriminals to take advantage of them

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About 59% of Indian adults have experienced cybercrime in the past 12 months, according to NortonLifeLock's 2021 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report. Collectively, cybercrime victims spent 1.3 billion hours trying to resolve these issues.

NortonLifeLock's report is based on a survey of more than 10,000 adults in 10 countries, including 1,000 adults in India. The survey was conducted in partnership with The Harris Poll.

According to the report, 36% of Indian adults identified unauthorised access to an account or device in the past 12 months. Almost half of them felt angry or stressed (49%) over the incident. Around 2 in 5 said they felt scared (42%) or vulnerable (38%), and 3 in 10 (30%) felt powerless.

Despite this, only 36% of them invested in security software or increased pre-existing security software. While 52% turned to friends for help, 47% contacted the company for a resolution, the report added.

The report also sheds light on how users feel about their data security under the new norm of work from home. According to the study, 7 in 10 Indian adults (70%) believe that remote work has made it much easier for hackers and cybercriminals to take advantage of users. About two-thirds said they are more worried than ever about being a cybercrime victim.

“Similarly, 63% of Indian adults report that they feel more vulnerable to cybercrime than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Despite these vulnerabilities around half (52%) say they do not know how to protect themselves from cybercrime, and even more (68%) say it is difficult for them to determine if the information they see online is from a credible source,” the report said.

On identity theft, over 2 in 5 Indian adults said they had experienced such an attack. About 14% of them were affected in the last year.

“Most Indian adults are concerned about data privacy (75%) and want to do more to protect it (77%). In fact, 76% are proactively looking for better ways to protect their privacy and 9 in 10 (90%) have taken steps to protect their online activities and personal information, nearly three-quarters of whom (74%) say they have done so due to changes in lifestyles and work environment since the pandemic began. Some of the most common steps taken are making passwords stronger (43%) and limiting information shared on social media (36%),” the report concluded.