How is Cyber Crime Impacting the US and What Steps can Prevent Cyber Theft?
21st century technological advancements enable the unprecedented access and exchange of information. Virtual identities spread across numerous accounts and networks are central aspects of everyday functions.
Cyber crime and data theft are the unfortunate byproducts of the digital presence each individual is now responsible for. It’s important to note that the severity of a theft crime or charge will vary depending on state laws and context. Modern technology has opened up new opportunities for committing fraud, identity theft, and breaching privacy through the use of computer networks.
Results from the following studies provide data quantifying different ways cyber crime is impacting the United States, as well as some of the preventative measures to help guard your own information from cyber theft.
Crimes Americans Worry Most About in 2021
- Having your personal, credit card or financial information stolen by computer hackers: 74%
- Being the victim of identity theft: 72%
- Your home being burglarized when you are not there: 43%
- Having your car stolen or broken into: 43%
- Getting mugged: 33%
A recent survey conducted and published by Gallup in November 2021 reached out to over 800 US respondents over telephone calls asking the question “How often do you, yourself, worry about the following things — frequently, occasionally, rarely or never?”. The results provide an interesting perspective on the significant concern this study suggests that the average American has towards having their personal, financial, or identity information compromised. With nearly a 30% difference between the first and second listed crimes and the rest of the options, this suggests internet and cyber crime intrusion prevention is an area a lot of Americans lack confidence in.
Monetary Damage Caused by Reported Cyber Crime
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) conducted a worldwide survey providing information on reported monetary damage as a result of cybercrime. Likewise, the results confirm the scale at which cyber theft is increasing year-to-year, up to 6.9 billion USD from only 1.45 billion USD reported in 2016. Paired with the previous study, this adds validity to the idea that cybersecurity has grown into a prominent issue over recent years as society becomes increasingly technologically reliant.
Number of individuals impacted by data violation incidents
A study that the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) conducted and published in January of 2022 depicts the number of individuals affected by “cyber data violations such as breaches, data exposures, and data leaks” annually within the US. The biggest takeaway from this study specifically concerns an over 86% decrease in affected individuals from 2.2 billion in 2018, to approximately 294 million in 2021. This is somewhat of a silver lining compared to the previous study suggesting a conflicting overall increase in reported cyber theft damage. However, ITRC’s study also notably reports an un-pictured increase in the “number of data violation incidents” from 2019 to 2021. This is a great example of the way different studies can suggest findings and trends that individually appear to contradict each other, but in reality just provide insight depicting different aspects of a diverging issue such as cybercrime.
How Can We Prevent Cyber Intrusions?
Even though the increasing threat of computer hackers and cyber criminals can be intimidating, staying informed and aware of current cybersecurity and theft prevention methods is even more important. Here are some steps the FBI outlines for scam and internet-enabled crime prevention:
- Regularly updating software and installing a strong anti-virus program will help protect your systems and data
- Creating different, strong passwords across individual online accounts as will make it harder to breach multiple accounts worth of information at once
- Protect your connections by avoiding sensitive transactions, such as purchases, when connecting to public wireless networks.
- Avoid suspicious emails or unsolicited text messages pertaining to your account information and instead manually check account info through company websites