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UK shoppers lose workday picking up aftermath of cyber-crime

More than 12 million Brits (20 percent) have been victimised by cyber-criminals this past year. UK consumers lost more than one full working day (nine hours) when dealing with the aftermath of online crime, costing roughly £134 each person or £1.6 billion across the country.

“The fact that over a fifth of consumers have had their personal details stolen should come as no surprise – criminals seek money, consumers have it, and personal details are the online route to it. The criminals are entrepreneurial, well-resourced and technically able, so it is unrealistic to hope to prevent breaches," said Paul McEvatt, senior cyber-threat intelligence manager, UK & Ireland at Fujitsu.

The Norton Cyber-Security Insights Report surveyed more than 1,000 UK consumers to shed light on the global impact of consumer cyber-crime. Brits are more likely to point fingers at foreign governments with 45 percent blaming them as the main guilty party of online crime. Two of every five Brits choose not to take time to change their account passwords after a security compromise. Over 10 percent of victims in the past year stated that their identity was stolen and one in seven had their financial information stolen after shopping online.

The report shows that UK ‘Millennials' are more likely to experience cyber-crime than ‘Baby Boomers'. One in three Millennials feel that breaches occur so often nowadays that they don't have true consequences. It was also revealed that almost a third (31 percent) of Millennials experienced cyber-crime in the past year in comparison to only 15 percent of Boomers.

Concern for online crime has grown greatly and many feel more at risk than ever before, with 80 percent of respondents stating concern about falling victim to cyber-crime and only 10 percent feel they have control of their online security.

“We no longer need convincing of the risks. Our findings demonstrate that people's trust in online activity has been rattled, yet there still is not widespread adoption of simple protection measures that people should take to safeguard their information online,” said Nick Shaw, EMEA general manager, Norton Business Unit.

Despite concerns, consumers are highly confident in their online security behaviours. UK password users are more likely to consistently use a secure password. 

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