DNS - Nearly Three-Quarters of Americans Have Been Victims of Cybercrimes

If you’ve never been the victim of a cybercrime, it turns out that you are in the minority. A new study conducted by Symantec (News - Alert), the maker of Norton security products, found that 65 percent of Internet users across the globe, and 73 percent of Web surfers in the U.S., have fallen victim to cybercrimes at some point. What this means is that the U.S. is one of the most “cyber-victimized” nations in the world, trailing only China, Brazil and India. For the purpose of the study, cybercrimes were generally defined as computer viruses, online credit card fraud and identity theft.

“The Norton Cybercrime Report: The Human Impact,” which polled 7,000 Internet users worldwide, studied not only the prevalence of cybercrime, but the emotional impact on victims. While 58 percent of victims felt “angry,” 51 percent felt “annoyed” and 29 percent felt “fearful,” a full 80 percent of victims felt certain that the wrong-doers will never be brought to justice. This feeling that cybercriminals are invincible leads to low levels of reporting crimes to police: only 44 percent of people victimized ever file a report with authorities. Reinforcing the fact that most of us think cybercrime is inevitable, nearly half of victims (49 percent) report that they will not change their online behavior in the future. We apparently tend to think of cybercrime as “a cost of using the Internet.”

Symantec would like to boost awareness of cybercrime and encourage more victims to report the crimes. “Cybercriminals purposely steal small amounts to remain undetected, but all of these add up. If you fail to report a loss, you may actually be helping the criminal stay under the radar," said Adam Palmer, Norton’s lead cyber security advisor.

Palmer, however, also acknowledged that the jaded attitude many people take toward the likelihood of solving cybercrimes may be justified. “Many criminals reside in a foreign country so it’s no surprise that people regard them as “faceless” – they physically are,” said Palmer. “And, because international cybercrime is hard to uncover and prosecute, people genuinely aren’t seeing justice being done.”

Of course, part of the study shows that many of the victims of cybercrime may also be the criminals: almost half of respondents in the study believe it is legal to download a song, album or movie without paying for it. 

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