It is estimated there are 4.6 billion Internet users worldwide. Correspondingly, there has been a continuing surge in online cybercrime. Rates of cyberattacks have risen during the coronavirus pandemic as online use has increased.
While cybercrime rates are high, the attitudes of people towards Internet safety appears to vary according to demographics. This is drawn out from a survey conducted by the company Veriff.
Explaining the motivation for the survey, Janer Gorohhov, co-founder and CPO at Veriff said: “Cybercriminals are continuously thinking of new ways to commit fraud, with the pandemic sadly providing them with more opportunities than ever – from COVID-19 vaccination scams to fake delivery texts.”
The survey was conducted using 2,000 UK citizens, with the aim to uncover how ‘safe’ people feel online. The survey also probed they types of scams Internet users have experienced and the safety precautions they have undertaken.
The most interesting finding is that 16-24-year-olds as the age group who feel the most unsafe online.
Across all age ranges, the poll uncovered that around one third (at 29 percent) of UK citizens feel unsafe online. With the finding pertaining to the 16-24-year-old age group, 42 percent expressed a significant concern.
Some of these concerns are borne out by actual cyberattacks. Package delivery emails or texts are revealed as the most common scam, with over two-fifths (42 percent) of people saying they had experienced an attempt at such a scam during the past three months. Geographically, Belfast (Northern Ireland) was the city that was reported to have experienced the highest level of cyberattacks, with the most common form of crime being identity theft.
The most common scams in the UK were revealed to be:
| Rank | Type of scam | Percentage of people who have experienced this scam over the last three months |
| 1 | Package deliveries | 42% |
| 2 | Tax rebate | 25% |
| 3 | TV licence | 19% |
| 4 | Copycat government | 16% |
| 5 | Vehicle tax | 15% |
| 6 | Dating or romance | 14% |
| 7 | COVID-19 vaccine | 13% |
| 8 | Holiday or travel | 10% |
In terms of strengthening online security, the preferred method, when asked, was the use of a form identification to be used each time social media was accessed. This was the preferred option for 68 percent of the people surveyed. This would be in the form of two-factor authentication. The survey also probed other aspects of computer use. This included what people have done in the past in relation to their social media postings. This revealed that half (50 percent) of millennials stated they were concerned about things they shared online when they were younger. It is not unknown for some prospective employers to review social media activity in order to gain a more rounded profile of a job candidate.
