Around 17 million UK consumers have experienced cybercrime over the past year and a majority think it’s likely to happen in the future, according to the latest annual report from Norton.
The Symantec brand’s 2018 Norton LifeLock Cyber Safety Insights Report features answers from over 1000 British consumers who were polled as part of a global survey of more than 16,000 adults.
It defines “cybercrime” as a crime committed online, including detecting unauthorized access to an account, learning information was exposed in a data breach, and detecting malicious software on a device.
A third of respondents said they’d experienced such a crime last year, around the same as for the 2017 report. A further 62% said it’s likely they’ll suffer an attack in the coming year and 60% claimed they are as likely or more so to experience cybercrime as they are to get the flu.
Yet according to the hard figures, UK losses connected to cybercrime have plummeted over the past year, from £4.6bn in the 2017 report to just £1.7bn this year. The average number of hours it took respondents to deal with the aftermath of an attack also appears to have significantly fallen: from 14.8 hours to just 5.5 hours.
However, a Norton spokesperson told Infosecurity that it was impossible to compare the two reports like for like "as there are a huge number of variables."
"Even the types of cybercrime differ each year, as methods evolve," they said.
The report also highlighted the growing threat to smart devices and endpoints, especially in the connected home.
Worryingly, a quarter (25%) of Brits were unaware that smart devices can be hacked, a figure rising to 28% for smart door locks and 32% for smart baby monitors.
The report also pointed to something of a contradiction between consumer attitudes to privacy and their behavior online.
While 82% said they are concerned about privacy and 95% said they have little or no trust in social media companies when it comes to protecting their personal info, 65% accept certain risks to make life more convenient.
Over half claimed they were even willing to sell or give away data on their location (57%) and internet search history (53%).