A report from Norton by Symantec has warned that many of the people in Europe ere complacent about cybercrime even as the report stated that more than 54 million Europeans were affected by cybercrime in the past year.

The cybersecurity company’s latest annual Norton Cyber Security Insights Report included results of an online survey of 21,000 consumers around the globe and the report was released very recently.

Despite the rising and many well publicized incidents of cybercrime, still willing to click on links or open potentially malicious email attachments from senders they do not know accounted for 75 percent of the consumers surveyed, the report said placing details fo the survey.

And with 30 percent experiencing it in the last year, and 40 percent willing to share their password with others, the most commonly affected by cybercrime are the millennials who are those people who reached young adulthood in 2000, the report found out.

The survey found nearly four in 10 Europeans failed to recognize the fraudulent message when they were tested respondents to see if they could tell the difference between a real and a fake banking email, the report said. A phishing scam, where a hacker steals private information using fake emails, could be faced by such individuals as indicated by the report.

“Our findings show that people are growing increasingly aware of the need to protect their personal information online, but aren’t motivated to take adequate precautions to stay safe,” Nick Shaw, general manager and vice president of EMEA Norton by Symantec, said in a press release.

“While consumers remain complacent, hackers are refining their skills and adapting their scams to further take advantage of people, making the need for consumers to take some action increasingly important,” Shaw said.

Ryan Rubin, managing director of IT Security & Privacy EMEA at global advisory firm Protiviti says that consumers need to recognise that they have an important part to play in protecting themselves and their data.

“As the study highlights, many of us are not good at fulfilling our obligations when it comes to security and many are quick to share information without asking any questions. Many do not see it as their responsibility to get educated,” he told the media in an email.

“We are even reluctant to use difficult-to-guess passwords and more secure authentication mechanisms and to reset passwords on a regular basis, seeing it as a pain. Few do any due diligence before registering for and/or using online services,” he added.

The problem of using the same or similar password across multiple systems would be eliminated by allowing consumers to use one password in order to access more complex passwords and this can be done by the use of password “vaults” for which there was need for raising of awareness, Rubin suggested.

“It is important for us all to remember that being online is a privilege and requires a level of responsibility. It is essential that we all get Cyber Street Smart and do the basics,” he added.

(Adapted from CNBC)

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