Cybercrime bullseye: Porn surfing males

By Athima Chansanchai

Hold onto your hot beverage, because we're about to tell you something shocking: young men who like to surf online for porn and dates are most at risk to being victimized by cybercrime, according to a new report by security experts.

But the Norton Cybercrime Report 2011 does reveal some things that aregenuinely alarming: that at $388 billion, the cost of cybercrime is bigger than the global black market of marijuana, cocaine and heroine combined ($288 billion). Broken down, that's $114 billion stolen by "cyberthugs" or spent dealing with cyberattacks and $274 billion worth of time victims said they lost to cybercrime.

It victimizes one million people a day. A day! In the past 12 months, there have been more victims of cybercrime than there are people in the U.S. You don't have to leave home to get mugged nowadays, folks. You don't even have to leave your beds. The survey found three times as many people suffered from cybercrime as they did offline crime.

Cybercriminals will also find you wherever you are: 10 percent of the more than 12,000 adults surveyed had been a victim of crime through their mobile phones. (Norton conducted nearly 20,000 interviews, including the 12,000+ adults, more than 4,500 children and almost 2,400 teachers.) 

A few factors make it more likely to land in the cybercrime hot zone:

• the hours you're online (more than 24 hours a week)
• the state of development in the country in which you reside (80 percent vs. 64 percent in first world markets)
• age (three out of four millennials ages 18 to 31 compared to 61 percent of baby boomers) and
• gender (72 percent of the victims' pool are men, vs. 65 percent female adults)
• risky online surfing habits (80 percent of those who viewed "adult content," aka porn, have experienced cybercrime vs. 67 percent who haven't) and 78 percent of online liars (vs. 59 percent who choose to tell the truth and nothing but it online).

While we know this must come as a blow to everyone who thinks it's safe to follow those links that promise a good time tonight, or that taking the gamble is worth the payoff, it should serve as a cautionary tale.

The report shows that while nearly 9 in 10 adults tell surveyers it's important for security software to protect their computer 100 percent of the time, only a fifth (21 percent) who have installed such software feel it protects them 100 percent of the time.

Joseph LaBrie, an associate professor at Loyola Marymount University, was quoted in the report with some remarks about this "cyberapathy":

This shows an emotional disconnect between what people think is important and what they’re actually doing to protect themselves against cybercrime. Often, because people feel the Internet is too complicated and the threats are unknown or ambiguous, they default to a learned helplessness where they simply accept cybercrime as part of the cost of going online.

Also, they cannot visualize online protection like they can with offline security systems like a fence or alarm that act as a physical deterrent.

 So, if nothing else, try to become less apathetic. It could save you a lot of time — and money.

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