Tag Archive for: Survey

Survey: Every sixth American avoids using the internet in public

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Shopping malls and public event venues are considered to have the most cyber threats

Almost 16% of American internet users avoid going online in public places and nearly 70% of Americans prefer their mobile internet for online activities in public, according to a survey conducted by NordVPN. Cybersecurity experts say that these measures help to mitigate cyberthreats, but issues raised by using public Wi-Fi can also be managed by other means.

Cyberthreat of shopping malls

In the new survey, most American internet users mentioned shopping malls (51%), public event venues (50%), and cafeterias, bars, or restaurants (49%) among the places where devices are exposed to cybersecurity threats the most. Home and workplace are mentioned as the safest places from cybersecurity threats with only 20% of respondents concerned about internet security and privacy in each location.

“Internet users should evaluate cybersecurity risks in every location because the scope of threats varies depending on a place. While universities or offices tend to put more effort into cybersecurity, it might not be the case with cafeterias and shopping malls,” says Marijus Briedis, CTO at NordVPN.

Americans trust in themselves more than in technology

The survey reveals that Americans tend to rely more on their behavior online to protect themselves from cybersecurity threats in public places rather than technology. 45% of respondents claim that they avoid entering or accessing sensitive information when they are connected to public Wi-Fi. At the same time, 42% of respondents go only to safe websites, and 35% verify if the public Wi-Fi is legitimate before joining.

Regarding the usage of cybersecurity and privacy tools, the numbers are more modest. Only 27% of Americans use a VPN service, and 33% choose antivirus software. While a VPN is a more popular solution among younger generations, older generations tend to trust antivirus software.

“Cybersecurity literacy is important, and it is great that internet users avoid entering or accessing sensitive information, like banking accounts, clicking on pop-ups, or going to suspicious websites. But a human mistake is an important factor in cybersecurity and even experts do…

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Most Canadian firms pay a ransomware gang, latest CIRA survey suggests

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The vast majority of organizations in this country are still giving in and paying ransomware gangs after successful attacks, the annual survey of infosec pros by the Canadian Internet Registry Authority (CIRA) suggests.

That’s one possible conclusion from the results of an online survey of 500 Canadian cybersecurity professionals from organizations that had at least 50 employees that was released Tuesday by CIRA.

CIRA oversees the .ca registry.

Released in conjunction with Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the survey shows 41 per cent of respondents said their organization had experienced an attempted or successful cyber attack in the last 12 months. Of those, 23 per cent said that their organization had been a victim of a successful ransomware attack in the last 12 months, one per cent more than 2022.

And of those, 70 per cent said their organization paid ransom demands — and nearly a quarter of those paid up to $100,000. The responses are roughly similar to those of previous CIRA surveys. In 2022, 73 per cent of those hit by ransomware said their firm paid up, while 69 per cent said their firm paid a ransom in 2021.

The numbers “went the wrong way in terms of a trend this year,” admitted Jon Ferguson, CIRA’s general manager of cybersecurity.

“The challenge for a lot of organizations is if they’re not well prepared for an attack before it happens, remediation may not be easy,” he said. “So they perceive paying is the simplest resolution of the problem. Maybe they lack the ability to recover without getting access (to data) back.”

They may also be worried about damage to their reputation if word gets out about a ransomware attack, he added.

Asked why in 2023 an organization would not be well prepared for ransomware, Ferguson said some firms may have trouble understanding the threats new technologies adopted by IT will pose.

He also noted evidence in the survey numbers that IT pros recognize ransomware is a problem. Three-quarters of respondents said they would support a law forbidding organizations from making ransom payments. (That’s up from 64 per cent in the 2021 survey).

Among other troubling survey numbers pointed out to Ferguson, 64 per cent of…

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Ransomware threat against colleges grows, survey finds

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Dive Brief: 

  • Ransomware attacks targeted the education sector more than any other industry in the last year, with 79% of surveyed higher education institutions across the world reporting being hit, according to an annual report from Sophos, a U.K.-based cybersecurity firm. 
  • Of the higher ed institutions that reported ransomware attacks, 59% said it resulted in them losing “a lot of” business and revenue. Around one-fourth, 28%, reported smaller losses. 
  • Hackers exploited system vulnerabilities in 4 in 10 higher education ransomware attacks, making them the sector’s most common root issue. Compromised credentials caused another 37% of attacks, while malicious emails led to 12% of reported incidents. 

Dive Insight: 

Sophos’ latest survey suggests that ransomware is increasingly targeting colleges and universities. In 2022’s report, only 64% of higher education institutions said they had been hit by ransomware in the past year — 15 percentage points lower than the share who reported incidents in the latest survey.

In some cases, hackers are ramping up their efforts to get colleges to pay for the return of their data. 

Knox College, a private liberal arts institution in Illinois, made headlines late last year when a hacker group broke into its computer system and accessed student data. The group that took credit for the breach, known as Hive, emailed students saying they had retrieved “personal information, medical records, psychological assessments, and many other sensitive data,” and threatened to sell their social security numbers. 

The attack spurred multiple lawsuits from students, who allege that Knox failed to follow the latest security practices to shield sensitive data. 

“Sophos’ latest report is a clarion reminder that ransomware remains a major threat, both in scope and scale,” said Megan Stifel, chief strategy officer at the Institute for Security and…

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Woman who scanned QR code with malware lost $20k to bubble tea survey scam while she was sleeping

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SINGAPORE – She visited a bubble tea shop and saw a sticker pasted on its glass door, encouraging customers to do an online survey to get a free cup of milk tea.

Enticed by what seemed like a good deal, the 60-year-old scanned the QR code on the sticker and downloaded a third-party app onto her Android phone to complete the “survey”.

That night, as she was sleeping, her mobile phone suddenly lit up.

Thanks to the app she had downloaded, scammers used it to take over her device and moved $20,000 from her bank account.

Worryingly, she is not the only victim of such malware scams.

In April, the police and the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore warned the public about downloading apps from dubious sites that can lead to malware being installed onto victims’ mobile phones.

They said such malware has resulted in confidential and sensitive data, including banking credentials, being stolen.

That month, the police also alerted the public to the resurgence of phishing scams involving malware installed on victims’ Android phones. The police had said that since March, there have been at least 113 victims who lost at least $445,000.

The case of the bubble tea survey scam was related to The Sunday Times by Mr Beaver Chua, head of anti-fraud at OCBC Bank’s group financial crime compliance department, last week.

He said: “While malware scams are not particularly new, scammers are getting increasingly innovative.

“Besides website pop-up banners, which are most common, pasting bogus QR codes outside F&B establishments is another cunning way to hook victims as consumers may not be able to differentiate between legitimate and malicious QR codes.”

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