Indians prone to risky online behaviour: Norton survey

Cyber crime on the rise with most users preferring connectivity to security

India ranks among the world’s top five countries for the highest number of incidences of cyber crime such as ransomware (11 per cent), identity theft (11 per cent) and phishing (nine per cent), reveals the 2013 Norton Report released by Symantec on Tuesday.

“At first glance of the India findings, we were happy to see a significant drop from last year in the total number of victims and total cost of cyber crime, but a closer scrutiny revealed an alarming trend,” said Ritesh Chopra, country manager, Norton by Symantec. “Today’s cyber criminals are using more sophisticated attacks such as ransomware and spear-phishing, which yield them more money per attack than ever before. With 66 percent of Indian consumers using their personal mobile device for both work and play, this creates entirely new security risks for enterprises as cyber criminals have the potential to access even more valuable information.”

According to the 2013 Norton Report, India appears to be the ransomware capital of Asia-Pacific with 11 per cent victims of this form of virtual extortion. In addition to ransomware, in the past 12 months, 56 per cent of cyber crime victims in India have experienced online bullying, online stalking, online hate crime or other forms of online harassment.

This year’s report notes that with consumers becoming more mobile and connected, these conveniences often come at a cost to them and their security. In fact, a staggering 63 per cent of smartphone users in India have experienced some form of mobile cyber crime in the past 12 months.

Engaging in risky behaviour, which includes revealing private information, makes the consumer vulnerable to be a victim of online criminals. A large percentage of Indian Wi-Fi users access social networks (61 per cent); shop online (44 per cent); and access their bank account (42 per cent) through a public or unsecure Wi-Fi connection. Adding to the risk are social network users in India, who share their password with others (18 per cent), don’t log out of each session (21 per cent) and connect with people they don’t know (18 per cent).

The survey results show this isn’t entirely due to lack of awareness. In fact, more than half (55 per cent) of consumers surveyed admitted that the convenience of being constantly connected outweighed any potential security risks. Even when 57 per cent said there is no such thing as “online privacy” in today’s world and 61 per cent assume “everything they put online will / can be seen by any and every one.