Research once again reveals the true damage of cybercrime. Individuals who have been deceived by an attacker are suffering from the results in various ways.
This is according to research conducted by Akamai within the United Kingdom. The 1,002 respondents, all affected by cybercrime in the past year, lost an average of 808 British pounds (the equivalent of 967 euros) because of the incident they were involved with.
Shame and trauma
One in five respondents struggled to pay their bills or groceries after their monetary damage. The mental problems extend beyond the financial: two in three of the British victims were traumatized.
Due to a sense of shame, 43 percent withheld the real damage from those around them, while 29 percent had trouble sleeping. The incidents mostly arose from phishing (57 percent), identity theft (33 percent), phone hacks (30 percent) or ransomware (15 percent). This multitude of dangers made 55 percent of respondents afraid to use online services.
Online unavoidable
These disruptions would have hit victims hard in the past. Today, this situation is all the more dire: many services work only or much faster online, such as banking or government regulations.
Being online is an essential part of modern society. Consequently, these incidents damage not only the emotional and financial lives of victims, but also their willingness to participate in them.
However, preventing online dangers is impossible; the problem is too widespread for that. We have long understood from IT experts that education on the subject and removing shame are critical to improving the current cybercrime situation for both individuals and organizations.