Over 50% cybercrime victims fail to recover lost money: Report

Moscow, Jan 27 (IANS) More than half (52 per cent) of internet users globally who have lost their money at the hands of cybercriminals have only got some, or none, of their stolen funds back, a new research from Kaspersky Lab revealed on Friday.

With the variety and sophistication of online financial threats against consumers growing, losses from online fraud, identity theft and hacking are now running at billions of dollars a year.

With many cases going unreported, the true economic cost is likely to be significantly higher, the Russia-based cybersecurity firm said in a statement.

On average, internet users lose $476 per attack and one-in-10 people surveyed said they lost more than $5,000.

"Cybercriminals are continually looking for new ways to exploit and defraud consumers and that's why it's important for internet users to be on their guard at all times," said Vyacheslav Zakorzhevsky, Head of the Anti-Malware Research Team at Kaspersky Lab.

A large majority of internet users said they conducted financial operations online (81 per cent) and nearly half (44 per cent) stored financial data on their connected devices. Only 60 per cent of internet users protect all their devices.

According to the research, 45 per cent of the surveyed users said they assumed they would be reimbursed by banks for financial cybercrime without any problems, but more than half of them did not get the money.

"Don't assume you will always get all your money back if you become a target and funds are stolen from you. The best way to safeguard your finances online is to make sure you don't become a victim," Zakorzhevsky added.

The company suggested that people use "Kaspersky Safe Money" with financial security suite to effectively protect themselves against online financial threats.