According to a new study released on Monday, more than one in two Indian adults (59 percent) faced cybercrime in the previous 12 months, and 7 out of Ten Indian adults (among those surveyed) claim that remote work has made it much easier for hackers and cybercriminals to take advantage of them.
According to the ‘2021 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report,’ by NortonLifeLock, more than 27 million Indian adults suffered identity theft in the previous 12 months, and 52% of Indian adults admitted they don’t know how to defend themselves from cybercrime.
While the majority of Indian consumers (90%) are taking proactive measures to secure their data, 2 out of 5 (42%) believe it is difficult to protect their privacy “in this age or say they don’t know how to do so”
The survey of more than 10,000 adults in ten countries, including 1,000 adults in India, was conducted online in collaboration with The Harris Poll.
Almost two-thirds of Indian adults (66%) said they are more concerned than ever before about being a target of cybercrime.
Although 52% sought assistance from friends, 47% sought assistance from the organisation from which the account had been hacked.
The report noted “Similarly, 63 per cent of Indian adults reported that they feel more vulnerable to cybercrime than they did before the Covid-19 pandemic began,”
According to the study, the majority of Indian adults are worried about data privacy (75%) and want to do more to protect it (77%).
Over two-fifths of Indian consumers (45%) have been victims of identity theft, with 14% impacted in the last year (up from 10% in 2019), implying that over 27 million Indian adults have been victims of identity theft in the last year.