India: most cyber victims
By Sameer

Computer security company Symantec’s Norton products are used is many personal computers around the world.

Symantec’s has just released its ‘Norton Cybercrime Report: The Human Impact 2010’ which is based on an online survey of 7,066 adults based in 14 countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States).

Two-thirds (65 percent) of Internet users globally, and almost three-quarters (73 percent) of U.S. Web surfers have fallen victim to cybercrimes, including computer viruses, online credit card fraud and identity theft.  As the most victimized nations, America ranks third, after China (83 percent) and Brazil and India (tie 76 percent).

The Norton Cybercrime Report says it is the first to examine the emotional impact of cybercrime and has published data which shows that victims' strongest reactions are feeling angry (58 percent), annoyed (51 percent) and cheated (40 percent), and in many cases, they blame themselves for being attacked. Only 3 percent don't think it will happen to them, and nearly 80 percent do not expect cybercriminals to be brought to justice— resulting in an ironic reluctance to take action and a sense of helplessness.

"We accept cybercrime because of a 'learned helplessness'," said Joseph LaBrie, PhD, associate professor of psychology at Loyola Marymount University. "It's like getting ripped off at a garage – if you don't know enough about cars, you don't argue with the mechanic. People just accept a situation, even if it feels bad."

Despite the emotional burden, the universal threat, and incidents of cybercrime, people still aren't changing their behaviors - with only half (51 percent) of adults saying they would change their behavior if they became a victim. Even scarier, fewer than half (44 percent) reported the crime to the police.

The "human impact" aspect of the report delves further into the little crimes or white lies consumers perpetrate against friends, family, loved ones and businesses. Nearly half of respondents think it's legal to download a single music track, album or movie without paying. Twenty-four percent believe it's legal or perfectly okay to secretly view someone else's e-mails or browser history. Some of these behaviors, such as downloading files, open people up to additional security threats.