Nearly half of Canadians (47%) fear becoming victims of cybercrime in the next year, although the vast majority (71%) are aware of the various types of cyberthreats, according to a survey by the Royal Bank of Canada ( RBC) released on Tuesday.
“Canadians are doing more and more online, and every year cybercriminals are using more and more sophisticated methods,” said Adam Evans, chief information security officer at RBC. The survey reveals that, despite their great concern in this regard, most Canadians have not yet taken steps to protect themselves and could find it difficult to recover from a cyberattack, “said RBC in a press release.
While most Canadians are aware of the most common threats, such as malware (60%), phishing (56%) and ransomware (47%), their number drops when it comes to new threats, such as misdirection and voice phishing (28%).
Two-thirds (65%) of Canadians surveyed believe they need to be better equipped to deal with cyberattacks, yet only 8% have coverage in their insurance policy.
People aged 55 and over are the most worried about cyber threats, particularly those involving personal information (83%), hacking of email or social media accounts (76%) or fraud and online scam (76%), according to the survey.
The survey also highlights the fact that only 50% of Canadians use antivirus and almost as many (49%) use multi-factor authentication. Only 46% of Canadians change their password regularly.
While people aged 18 to 34 are more likely than older people to be aware of most threats, they are not more likely to adopt protective measures.
Some protective measures to adopt:
- Protect your banking information with effective and different passwords for each account;
- Avoid using public Wi-Fi networks;
- Beware of phone messages, text messages and emails, which are a major source of cyberattacks.