Canadians see an uptick in cybercrime cases
September 5, 2012
A new report issued by Norton Antivirus Software has found that nearly half of all Canadians have been targeted by some form of cybercrime in the past year, and there needs to be more of a focus on protecting the population's personal information, according to the Vancouver Sun.
The report, which looked at cybercrime in 24 countries across the globe, found that more than 46 percent of Canadians reported hackers tried to access their personal data at one point during the past year. In addition, more than 8.3 million Canadians reported they were victims to a cyber attack. However, 42 percent said they do not think they would know if their phone, tablet or computer was infected with a virus unless it crashed or showed some other drastic sign.
Even though there have been a number of laws and policies put in place to protect people, hackers are still gaining access.
"Cyber criminals are looking at new ways to attack and mobile is a really big platform that we are seeing," Lynn Hargrove, director of consumer solutions for Symantec Corp., told the news source. "Cyber criminals are going to go where the biggest bang for their buck is."
Now that smartphones are being targeted, officials fear more attacks will occur.
"It's a much different landscape," Hargrove told the news outlet. "As we are seeing more cybercrime on a mobile device, 54 percent of Canadians are reporting that they are accessing the Internet on that device and 74 percent of Canadians don't have mobile security."
Those who want to discuss how to prevent cybercrime can make calls to Canada using a calling card to keep costs low.