Cyber security by the rest of us ...

Breakdown of cyber crime types reported by learners in Week 1

As part of the Introduction to Cyber Security MOOC, we asked learners to review their computer security practices at the start of their learning by completing a simple online survey / self-audit.  Over 9100 learners completed the survey in Week 1 of the course, highlighting some interesting findings.

For example, although 84% of respondents had configured their computers to require a password on startup, 30% did not 'lock' their computer so that it required the password to be re-entered if they left it unattended.

With regard to password management, 55% of respondents depended on their memory for storing passwords, whereas 26% used software (password manager / web browser) to manage their passwords.  It is noteworthy that 18% reported that they write their passwords down and 59% reuse the same username / password across multiple websites.

It was reassuring to note that 90% of learners who completed the survey reported that they use anti-virus software on their computer, and 96% of these learners make sure to keep the software up to date.  However, in addition to the 10% of learners who don't use anti-virus software, 13% reported that they do not take steps to update their software - indicating there is a significant user population whose machines are vulnerable to being attacked by cyber criminals.

The final noteworthy result from this survey was that 46% of respondents reported that they had been victims of some form of computer crime.  The breakdown of the types of crime reported by these learners is shown above.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Cloud Wedge - geek of the week

Priming Code Club