The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and CybSafe have launched their annual ‘Oh, Behave! The Annual Cybersecurity Attitudes and Behaviors report’, which studies 3,000 individuals across the US, the UK and Canada towards cybersecurity.

According to the report, nearly half (45%) of respondents are connected to the internet at all times. This is increased connectivity has invariably led to an increase of almost of a quarter (24%) suffering from instances of identity theft.

Concerningly, more than one in three (36%) have lost money or data due to a phishing attack while 23% have experienced cyberbullying and 17% have been the victim of a romance scam.

Further findings revealed poor password hygiene still plagues online users with only 33% using a unique password for important online accounts, while only 16% utilise passwords of over 12 characters in length.

Only 18% of participants have downloaded a stand-alone password manager, while 43% of respondents have not even heard of multi-factor authentication.

When it comes to phishing scams, 70% of respondents revealed they are confident in their ability to identify a malicious email, yet only 45% will confirm the authenticity of a suspicious email by reaching out to the apparent sender. This is even in spite of the massive surge in impersonation scams currently hitting consumers which are costing victims an average of £1,610.

The research also revealed that, while cybercrime continues, individuals are not underestimating the threats that cybercrime presents, with 57% of respondents expressing that they were worried about cybercrime, 43% felt they were likely cybercrime targets and 78% consider staying secure online a priority.

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“One of the biggest misconceptions is the belief that people are the weakest link in cybersecurity,” said Oz Alashe, CEO and Founder of CybSafe.

He added: “The combination of evolving threats coupled with more people accessing the Internet daily for work and recreation means people-related cybersecurity risk must be reassessed. It also makes education and implementation of fundamental cybersecurity practices more important than ever before.

“MFA, password managers and other ‘basic’ cybersecurity best practices have been shown to be incredibly effective in thwarting cyber criminals, yet adoption continues to be a big problem.

“We need to find a way to break through the age-old misperceptions that these steps are annoying or cumbersome and replace them with the facts: these tools can significantly lower the chances of becoming a cybercrime victim.”

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