Cybercrime Is Now A Top Concern for Americans

According to a recent Gallup poll, Americans are now more worried about the threat of cybercrime than conventional crime.

In the poll, 67 percent of U.S. adults expressed that they frequently or occasionally worry about having their personal financial information stolen by hackers. And 66 percent of Americans are concerned about being the victim of identity theft.

These two fears trumped having your car stolen or broken into (38 percent), having your home burglarized when you are not there (36 percent) and being the victim of terrorism (30 percent).

Of course, it’s been a wild year in cybersecurity as we have seen data breaches happen at several major organizations like Equifax, Yahoo, Deloitte, Arby’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and America’s JobLink, to name a few. So Americans are learning more about cybercrime in the media, and are naturally becoming more aware of the threat.

At the same time, threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated and dangerous. Over the last year, for instance, we have seen an explosion in ransomware which is a type of malware that hijacks personal files and holds them until a fee is paid. Last year, the odds of getting hit with ransomware were roughly the same as landing on black in roulette (47 percent). This year, the odds have increased as ransomware sales have grown by 2,502 percent.

Hopefully, growing consumer fear about cybercrime will permeate into the business world and cause more organizations to get serious about protecting their digital assets by leveraging employee training and investing in real-time threat detection services.