The
ESET survey of thousands of people in Asia-Pacific (APAC) provides valuable
insight into their perceptions of cyber-threats and various common aspects of
online security
By Tomáš Foltýn
A full 58 percent of respondents in a recent
survey in the Asia-Pacific region experienced a data breach in the past 12
months.
This is just one finding from the ESET APAC Consumer Survey 2018, which was carried out in Hong
Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand between
October and December 2018. In each country, it gathered input from 2,000
respondents.
Among other things, the survey sought to get
a sense of people’s sentiments towards organizations that had suffered damaging
security incidents, albeit not necessarily with direct implications for the
respondents themselves.
After public trust in a company has been
dented as a result of a breach or hack, the best way, according to many
respondents, to begin undoing the reputational damage is simple: apologize and
come clean on what happened and how it was resolved. This approach was favored
by nearly one in every three (32%) people, whereas another 25% said that the
key thing the company should do in such a scenario is provide proof that the
right precautions are in place to prevent such incidents in the future.
Turning to another issue, the survey found
that only three in every ten parents deploy parental controls on their children’s smart devices.
That’s despite the fact that such tools can be helpful in ensuring that
children only engage with platforms and content that is suitable and safe for
their age.
Children, and not only they, may be exposed
to a range of threats on social media, most often by sharing too many details of their lives. And this is
precisely what many respondents appear to be doing, as nearly one third of them
admitted to having shared the kind of information with strangers over social
media that might help them commit identity theft or launch social engineering
campaigns.
But so as not to end on a downer, almost 80%
percent of all respondents indicated that they’re willing to learn and develop
a better understanding of cyber-threats.
To be sure, these are just a few morsels
of information that can be extrapolated from the survey. To learn more about
the respondents’ views on these and other issues you may want to refer to the report itself. It covers a smorgasbord of topics, including
password security, accessing the internet on smartphones, safe online shopping,
and the implications of our use of social media for privacy and security. The
report also provides a bunch of easy-to-apply tips and tricks for your online
safety.