SEA’s millennials, boomers more guarded about future tech
KUCHING: Millennials and boomers in Southeast Asia are more cautious about future technologies such as biometrics, smart appliances, robotic devices, and deepfakes, a study by Kaspersky showed.
In a press release based on its research ‘Making Sense of Our Place in the Digital Reputation Economy’, it found that more than half (62 per cent) are afraid of deepfakes, with the highest among Baby Boomers (74 per cent) and lowest among Gen X (58 per cent).
Deepfakes is the use of artificial intelligence to create images, audio, or voice recordings in someone else’s likeness. The respondents’ attitude towards this technology is not without basis as deepfake videos have been used for political purposes, as well as for personal revenge. Increasingly, they are also being used in major attempts at blackmail and fraud.
Southeast Asia’s respondents are less but still guarded about biometrics or the use fingerprint, eye scanner, and facial recognition (32 per cent), smart devices (27 per cent), and robotic tools like a robo cleaner (15 per cent).
The social media users in the region has valid reasons to fear the up and coming technologies as the study also unmasked their negative experiences online.
Most common incident faced by more than three-in-10 respondents was an account takeover wherein someone got access to their accounts without their permission. More than a quarter (29 per cent) also have some secret information seen by someone they would not want to see.
Over two-in-10 also shared that someone got access to their devices forcibly (28 per cent), their private information was either stolen or used without consent (24 per cent) or was seen publicly (23 per cent).
Aftermaths of these incidents include receiving spam and adverts (43 per cent), stress (29 per cent), causing embarrassment or offense (17 per cent), reputational damage (15 per cent), and monetary loss (14 per cent).
“Our survey proves that unfortunate incidents can happen online and such have reallife repercussions. Technologies are meant to evolve for the greater good, however, there are always learning curves where a some amount of fear with action will be vital,” commented Kaspersky Asia Pacific managing director Chris Connell.
However, the same research revealed that there are still almost two-in-10 users in the region who believe that internet security software is not required to protect their online lives.
This perception is highest with Gen Z (17 per cent), followed by millennials (16 per cent).
There were both 15 per cent of Gen X and Baby Boomers who also deem these solutions unnecessary.
“This is a cause of concern as we, humans, are prone to making errors from time to time and such solutions are meant to be our safety nets.
“While there is no silver bullet when it comes to cybersecurity, it is still important to have basic defenses in place. Business owners should particularly look into this as their IT infrastructure continues to flow from their safer enterprise networks to the more vulnerable individual houses,” added Connell.