NORFOLK, V.a. (WAVY)- More than half of respondents in a recent study said they’ve been victims of cybercrime.
Several ODU professors collaborated with researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Tech to learn how both businesses and individuals are impacted by cybercrime throughout the Commonwealth.
“We’re much more likely to be victimized by cybercrime than the normal street crime that I look at so its applicable to all of us,” said ODU Sociology Professor Randy Gainey. “A false sense of security is what I worry about these days.”
Of 420 businesses surveyed, 85% reported being victimized by cybercrime. Over 1,200 residents responded, 62% of whom said they’d been victims.
For residents, 33% of incidents were related to credit card fraud.
Tancy Vandecar-Burton, Director of the ODU Social Science Research Center, said that the more confident respondents said they felt online, the more likely they were to be victimized.
“Just because you think you’re an expert you’re still open for victimization,” she said.
Greg Tomchick, CEO of Valorr Cybersecurity, said people need to ensure their networks are secure both at work and at home. He said network security begins with a company’s leadership.
“We always look at what could take down the business. What does the business depend on to operate, and if that is pulled out from under them what does that look like for their organization?” Tomchick said.
Tomchick said families’ home networks are vulnerable through routers if default settings are not changed. Ensure you change the administrator password to something unique that no one will guess. He also said to double-check that you have two-factor authentication on your mobile banking applications or any other accounts with sensitive information.
“You want to make sure the criminal doesn’t look at you as an easy target, and that deters them. Like cameras on a bank. They’ll go to the next bank,” Tomchick said.
