Australia (Commonwealth Union) – The fear of hacking has often held off companies and individuals from sharing important information on digital platforms when possible. New analysis from The Australian National University (ANU) has indicated that 1 in 3 Australian adults were exposed to data breaches during the last 12 months.
Approximately 3,500 adults were surveyed during October 2022 for the ANU poll series of surveys reveling that 32.1% stating that they or a someone from their household had fallen victim to data breaching. The analysis tracked major and high-profile cyberattacks from recent months.
Study co-author Professor Nicholas Biddle from the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods stated that the survey’s results indicate cyberattacks were one of the rapidly increasing types of crimes in the country. He further revealed that approximately one third of adult Australians, or roughly 6.4 million people, were victims of a breach in the last 12 months.
“In comparison our survey found only 11.2 per cent of Australians had been the victim of serious crimes like burglary or assault in the last five years,” said Professor Biddle. “As our lives become more and more dominated by data, so too does our exposure to data related crime. This is a serious issue that needs serious attention.”
The survey revealed that the age group with the highest chance of falling victim to data breaches were Australians aged 25 to 34, with 41.5% of this group indicating their exposure.
The survey further revealed that trust in key institutions with regards to data privacy had gone down significantly for telecommunication companies, in the last 2 months. On top of that, in the previous 12 months there has been a huge rise in the number of Australians who felt governments should intervene when it came to data protection.
The duration and use of personal data by tech companies and other corporations has also been a major concern across the world.
