Cybercrime too time consuming to fight

A report [PDF] from Symantec has found that when it comes to cybercrime, many people are just not willing to spend time or effort on fighting back against its perpetrators.

The firm's Cybercrime Report: The Human Impact report surveyed 7,000 online users from around the globe and found that 65 per cent had been affected by cybercrime in some way.

However, it can take an average of 28 days to resolve a cybercrime, and costs around £215 to resolve that crime, meaning many of those that are affected are unwilling to take action.

Some 80 per cent of those surveyed said they didn't believe criminals would be brought to justice while Symantec noted a discrepancy in the number of people saying they have been affected by cybercrime to official data on incidents reported.

Symantec's Adam Palmer, lead cyber security advisor, said those affected were right not to be confident of any legal action being successful.

"Many criminals reside in a foreign country so it's no surprise that people regard them as 'faceless' as they physically are. And, because international cybercrime is hard to uncover and prosecute, people genuinely aren't seeing justice being done," he noted.

Furthermore, many people don't even consider the police their first port of call for such incidents, and instead just deal with the institution which is most directly affected, most often their bank.

Sixty-three per cent of all UK citizens affected by cybercrime ring their bank to report issues, while 61 per cent of US citizens do the same. Those most likely to call on the fuzz are the Swedes (74 per cent) and the Japanese (52 per cent).

The report also touched on the human side of cybercrime finding that, surprisingly, 78 per cent of those affected felt guilty for being a victim. More understandably, perhaps, 58 per cent felt angry, while 29 per cent felt scared after a violation.

However, the report did contain some positives, claiming that 75 per cent of respondents now know not to share passwords with others while 71 per cent never open email attachments from strangers.