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'Two-third of Internet users hit by cybercrime'

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE, INDIA: According to a new survey commissioned by Symantec about two-thirds of all Internet users have been hit by some sort of cybercrime, while most of them are angry about it, a surprisingly large percentage feel guilt too.

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In a cybercrime survey of just over 7,000 Internet users in 14 countries, researchers found that 65 percent of Internet users worldwide have already been victims. In the U.S., it's 73 percent, but things are worse in China (83 percent), Brazil (76 percent) and India (also 76 percent).

Norton internet safety advocate Marian Merritt, said "What we were really surprised by was, first of all, how common it was that people are being victimized by cybercrime," she said.

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On how victims react to being hacked said said: "People do fee angry, but we also found that people feel pretty guilty. 54 percent said they should have been more careful, when they responded to online scams."

When it came to identity theft victims, 12 percent said that the incident was entirely their fault, Symantec found.

Merritt said many people are in a pretty muddled state when it comes to dealing with the threat of online crime, however, they know that cybercrime is common, but they're unsure what to do to really prevent it.

(Source: IDG News Service) 

Also read: Security Trends 2010

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