The cost of cybercrime in UK reaches £1.6 billion

Norton by Symantec has released the findings from its Cybersecurity Insights Report. This online survey was conducted across 17 markets and took into account the responses from 17,125 consumers over the age of 18.

Norton’s report has revealed how heavily British consumers have been affected by cybercrime and the stark differences between the ways in which Baby Boomers and Millennials protect themselves online.

More than 12 million British consumers fell victim to cybercrime during the past year alone and this has cost the country £1.6 billion. 44 percent of consumers in the UK have dealt with some form of cybercrime in their lives and, of this number, 22 percent of consumers were victims to cybercrime in the past year alone.

The general consensus amongst those surveyed was that Baby Boomers are more likely to experience cybercrime because they are less knowledgeable in regards to technology. However, the opposite is true with Millennials being much more likely to fall victim to cybercrime. Almost a third of British Millennials have experienced some form of cybercrime while the number for British Baby Boomers is actually much lower.

There are many possible reasons for this but the most compelling one is that older consumers are more likely to practice safe habits online and to share their passwords considerably less. Millennials are twice as likely to share their passwords and are also less likely to use a secure password in the first place. They also commonly share email passwords which is dangerous as email accounts are often used as a password reset for other accounts.

Cybercrime is steadily growing worldwide and the significant effect it has on the lives of consumers has certainly been seen in the UK. Hopefully reports like Norton’s Cybersecurity Insights Report can persuade consumers to take cybersecurity more seriously in the future.

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