Photo via Forbes India
You’d think more people would be worried about their data privacy online, especially after most of the world went into lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
But according to a global survey by cybersecurity company Kaspersky, most netizens in southeast asia (SEA) actually aren’t too bothered by it, and don’t share the rest of the world’s concerns about data privacy.
It seems that the majority (82%) of the 760 respondents from the region think that their digital lifestyle is safe for their data’s privacy - this is 7% higher than the global average at 75%.
Also, 1% of the users in SEA admitted that living virtually feels very unsafe for them, two notches lower than the world view at 3%.
These results seem strange because despite the high confidence in the region, survey respondents also admitted to being hacked online at least once.
Meanwhile, almost two-in-ten of the respondents also confessed they are not sure if their accounts were compromised ever, as they do not know how to check (18%), while another 14% revealed they have never checked at all.
“Technology is a very useful tool, especially when secured effectively. Based on this study, SEA online users are spending five to 10 hours per day online and admitted that the lockdown measures have increased their time spent virtually by two to five hours per day. With our devices being an extension of offices, banks, shopping malls, schools, and more, now more than ever do we need to look into how we keep our accounts and devices locked safely to keep our digital lives and assets away from the hands of cybercriminals,” says Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky.
“It is good to feel safe to live huge parts of our lives online, especially during this time when we need to limit our physical activities to keep ourselves and our families safe from this pandemic. Being comfortable in the virtual world does not, however, equates to putting our guards down,” he adds.
Photo via AmTrust Financial
While the research shows that most internet users in southeast asia are confident of their data privacy, Kaspersky has advised the following:
- Take your online privacy seriously and don’t share or permit access to your information with third parties unless absolutely necessary, to minimise exposure of it falling into the wrong hands.
- Start using “Privacy Checker” that helps consider setting your social media profiles to private. It will make it harder for third parties to find highly personal information.
- Use a reliable security solution to generate and secure unique passwords for every account, and resist the temptation to re-use the same one over and over again.
- For businesses, teach employees about the basics of cybersecurity. For example, not opening or storing files from unknown emails or websites as they could be harmful to the whole company, or to not use any personal details in their passwords.
- In order to ensure passwords are strong, staff shouldn’t use their name, birthday, street address and other personal information.
- Regularly remind staff of how to deal with sensitive data, for example, to only store it in trusted cloud services that need to be authenticated for access and that it should not be shared with untrusted third parties.
Don’t take things for granted, guys. Be safe online!
by Kyle Roshen Jacob
