Seventy-three percent of American have been victims of cybercrime which includes computer viruses, online credit card fraud and identity theft. Oddly enough, 54% of those victimized believe that they should have been more careful–a sign that they blame themselves more than predators. The psychology of that is hard to understand. Perhaps it is a form of survivor’s guilt. Some people who get viruses on their computers must junk them altogether. Others can get the problems fixed at some cost and effort, but at least they can keep their machines to run another day.
“The Norton Cybercrime Report: The Human Impact” commissioned by Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) showed that “victims’ strongest reactions are feeling angry (58 percent), annoyed (51 percent) and cheated (40 percent).” More than 7,000 people were surveyed, which means that many people don’t care if they have been victimized.
“Despite the emotional burden, the universal threat, and incidents of cybercrime, people still aren’t changing their behaviors – with only half (51 percent) of adults saying they would change their behavior if they became a victim,” the poll reports. That shows that many people who have been harmed do not care enough to alter the way that they use the internet.
The report also says that “Solving cybercrime can be highly frustrating: According to the report, it takes an average of 28 days to resolve a cybercrime, and the average cost to resolve that crime is $334. Twenty-eight percent of respondents said the biggest hassle they faced when dealing with cybercrime was the time it took to solve.”
The data is nearly impossible to believe. It concludes that many people are simply willing to let the matter go when they have been the target of an attack while online. Perhaps these people believe that security problems go with the territory of working and playing online. If that is true, Norton’s business, which is to sell virus prevention and security software, does not have much growth potential.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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