Fifty-three percent of Canadians say their concerns about cybercrime is leading to them limiting their use of online services, according to a new survey from professional services company Accenture.
Altogether, Accenture’s 2017 Canada Cybercrime Survey found that 80 percent of Canadians said cybercrime is highly concerning to them, with 36 percent of respondents saying they have been targeted by cybercrime directly. Nineteen percent of people, meanwhile, said they’ve actually been a victim of cybercrime in the past.
Accenture also found that many people don’t seem to know how to protect themselves in the event of a cybersecurity breach. The study found that only 38 percent of respondents said they were aware of how to report a cybercrime to authorities, with a similarly small 44 percent of Canadians saying they knew how to protect themselves from cyber threats.
As a result, it seems like Canadians may be under-reporting and under-estimating their victimization by cybercrime. According to the survey, only 11 percent of respondents said they had reported a cybercrime incident in the past three years, while just over 35 percent expressed confidence in the ability of police to respond effectively to cybercrime-related complaints.
“Canadians are concerned about their general lack of knowledge when it comes to preventing and reporting cybercrime,” said Arnold van den Hoeven, public safety lead in Accenture Canada’s Health and Public Service practice, in a press statement. “The majority (78 percent) of survey respondents want government and public safety agencies to do more to inform them about how to prevent cybercrime and to stay safe online, with one-fifth (20 percent) of respondents specifically citing the need for increased education of citizens about their personal and data security when online.”
To carry out the survey, Accenture partnered with Market Strategy Group to poll 1,057 Canadian citizens during September 2017.
Image credit: FBI
Source: Canada Newswire
