You are more vulnerable to cyber crime than you think

▶ No one is immune to the perils of hackers, but adhering to protocols can spare us attacks

The recently released results of a survey carried out by global cyber-security firm Kaspersky Lab reveal deeply troubling details. More than half of consumers are vulnerable to data thefts simply because they fail to take basic security precautions such as creating personal identification numbers on their smartphones.

Some 73 per cent of the respondents said they were not concerned about digital crime. As a result, their photos, videos and bank details are freely available to enterprising hackers. The threat to post sensitive information, such as private pictures, on public forums is often made by criminal hackers to demand ransom from their victims. People are more willing to pay the money than lock their gadgets. For many people, cybercrime is an abstract phenomenon until they are affected by it. Yet it is important to remember that no one is immune to it – not even corporations and governments.

Last week, a report by the cyber-security company FireEye warned that hackers on the payroll of the Iranian government may be behind the spate of attacks on American, Saudi Arabian and South Korean aviation and energy firms. This came on the heels of the data breach at the credit monitoring agency Equifax. The information of millions of consumers is now in the hands of hackers. In 2012, Saudi Aramco had to shut down its network and destroy 30,000 computers after being infiltrated by the Iranian Shamoon virus. These security breaches can often be traced back to the recklessness of individuals. Failure to comply with rudimentary security protocols – such as not opening phishing emails – can give rise to devastating losses. Prevention, as always, is the best cure. If you haven’t locked your phone yet, do it now. And if you receive an email with a link that asks you for your passwords, don’t do it.