70% of Canadians Have Been Victims of Cybercrime

70% of online adults in Canada have been the victim of cybercrime at some point in their life, according to Norton’s Cybercrime 2012 report. More than eight million have experienced it in the past year.

So it’s no surprise that the Canadian Internet Registration Authority recently concluded that Canadians are most worried about security when it comes to using the internet. The organization discovered this through its Canadian Internet Forum initiative.

“It comes as no surprise that Canadians identified security as a top challenge,” said Bryan Holland, the CEO of CIRA. “As the Internet becomes more integral to our social and economic landscape, it is inevitable that there will be greater volumes of criminal activity to exploit that.”

Cybercrime costs Canadians $1.4 billion per year. The average cost cost per crime victim is over $160, according to Norton’s report.

There appears to be no safe haven from cybercrime. 16% of adults in Canada have been a recent victim of social or mobile cybercrime, while 37% of social network users have experienced cybercrime on a social network.

Canadians are also ill-equipped to deal with these dangers: 21% don’t understand the risks or know how to protect themselves online, the report says, while 34% don’t realize malware can operate behind the scenes discreetly. And more than one-third don’t use complex passwords and don’t change their passwords frequently.