Each year thousands of Internet users become victims of a cybercrime that leaves them out of pocket.
Research from Kaspersky Lab reveals that over half (52 percent) of internet users, who've lost money at the hands of cybercriminals have only got some, or none, of their stolen funds back.
With the variety and sophistication of online financial threats against consumers growing, losses from online fraud, identity theft and hacking are now running at billions a year. And with many cases going unreported, the true economic cost is likely to be significantly higher.
The research reveals how costly these attacks are for Internet users, and how lucrative they have become for cybercriminals. On average, Internet users lose USD 476 per attack and one-in-ten people surveyed said they lost more than USD 5,000.
A large majority of Internet users say they conduct financial operations online (81 percent) and just under half (44 percent) store financial data on their connected devices. As more users go online to manage their finances, more cybercriminals are looking for opportunities to cash in, making it important for users to have robust Internet security in place to protect themselves and their money.
Nevertheless, only 60 percent of internet users protect all their devices.
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Attitudes to online safety could be influenced by users mistakenly thinking lost money will be automatically refunded to them.
Kaspersky Safe Money, one of key features of Kaspersky Lab home products, such as Kaspersky Total Security, is a financial security suite of technologies, designed to protect the online financial operations of users with three core principles - trusted site, trusted connection and trusted environment. This solution's ability to effectively protect users against financial threats has been approved by many independent researchers.