A B2B International and Kaspersky Lab survey has revealed that one in five cyber attacks successfully steals or corrupts sensitive data. Moreover, 61% of users could not fully restore all data that was damaged during such a malware attack.
Thirty-nine percent were able to retrieve all the data lost, 44% could only restore part of it, and for 17% all the data was gone for good.
The report also revealed the majority (56%) of respondents value the data more than they do the device it is stored on.
The survey was conducted over several months in mid-2013 and spoke to 8 605 respondents, both men and women, across 19 countries in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. All participants were over 16, and the 'overwhelming majority' use the Internet and various mobile devices.
Not enough attention
Given the value users place on their data, the report revealed a substantial group of users who do not pay enough attention to security or place too much trust in third parties.
For example, 34% of respondents take no security measures when using a public WiFi network, 40% are certain that the Web sites they use provide adequate protection for their passwords, and 45% are confident their bank will return any money that is stolen from them online.
In terms of passwords, about 40% of those polled said they used only one password, or at best a small collection of passwords that they alternate for all of their accounts. Fifteen percent said they use passwords that they alter only slightly from account to account, while a little over a quarter said each account has a unique password.
The practice of using just a few passwords for numerous accounts is not surprising, because the majority (65%) like to keep no written record of them - not everyone is capable of remembering lots of different passwords, says Kaspersky Lab.
It also revealed that only 6% of respondents use dedicated programs that create and safely store strong passwords - one of the most secure means of managing passwords.
Respondents who felt they couldn't remember all their passwords, tend to resort to "inherently risky" ways of storing them. Those that used a notebook numbered 16%, a document stored on the actual computer (11%), and those who kept them on a piece of paper that could more likely than not be found in close proximity to the PC accounted for 10%.
When it came to financial services and social media, respondents were a lot more careful, with 72% of respondents saying they use distinct passwords for these sorts of sites.
However, many still place too much trust in third parties. Some 40% of respondents believe the Web sites they visit have reliable protection for password databases. "In reality, many sites store passwords under encoding that is publicly known and therefore easy to decode," adds Kaspersky Lab.
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