About 45% of Italians have been
directly affected by cybercrime in the past year, with young
people most at risk, a study by Norton by Symantec showed on
Tuesday.
The research, conducted on 17,000 consumers globally,
showed that on average 40% of people in Europe were affected by
cybercrime in the same period and 46% around the world.
The data showed that Italians affected by the
computer-based attacks took an average of 13 hours to deal with
the consequences of the crimes.
One in 6 Italians faced "ransomware" attacks, which is a
form of digital extortion. About 12% reported identity theft and
13% faced the loss of financial information after trying to buy
something online.
Other problems included compromised passwords, unauthorised
access to email accounts and theft of mobile devices.
Even though younger people are more likely than older
people to be aware of the risks faced online, they were more
often victims, the study showed. About 32% of Italians in the
"Millennial" generation (born between the early 1980s and early
2000s) said they had faced cybercrime while only 15% of older
baby boomers reported incidents.
According to the research, older people appeared to be more
cautious online, using more secure passwords for example and
sharing them less often.
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