Password 1234? Many of us are vulnerable to hacking by leaving our devices unprotected

More than half of consumers are at risk of having data such as bank account details, pictures and videos stolen by failing to activate even basic security, such as smartphone pin numbers.

Data from a survey by Kaspersky Lab – a global cyber-security company – during the first half of the year, found that 54 per cent of respondents leave their devices unprotected from cyber-attacks, a figure unchanged from a survey the company conducted last year.

About 73 per cent of respondents said they were unconcerned about digital hacking, a 6 per cent drop in the response to the same question last year.

Despite the nonchalant attitude to cyber-security, 51 per cent of respondents from the UAE said the loss of their data would be disastrous.

“Privacy, money, children and data is what needs protection,” said Amir Kanaan, general manager for the Middle East at Kaspersky Lab. “Our goal is to show how data is valuable. We sometimes think our data is worthless but it’s not.” He said cyber-criminals were well aware of the value of data, yet most of the time, internet users were not.

“Our main goal is to educate people to safeguard this important information, or data, like pictures and credit cards, to combat the cyber threat that they may encounter,” Mr Kanaan said. “Unfortunately, some realise the value of their data only after they’ve been hit by ransomware.”

More than half of those asked said they felt unprotected and do not take any measures to defend their accounts or data while 42 per cent said they had previous issues that had caused them trouble, anxiety and money loss.

“I see cyber risks everywhere,” said Mohammed Hasbini, senior security researcher at Kaspersky. “We live in a world that extremely depends on technology … And as we move towards smarter cities, especially in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, we need to prepare ourselves to be ready to deal with technologies and deal with them from both sides because they have a lot of positives, but some of their negatives could be dangerous.”

The survey also showed that for 59 per cent of people in the UAE, private and sensitive photos of themselves were the most precious data they held on their devices, followed by photos of their children and spouses.

But when confronted with the decision to delete this data for money, people gave their digital data away for as little as Dh45.

“I wouldn’t be surprised by an increase in the amount of data that’s being exposed on underground webs and the number of people worrying,” said Stuart Davis, the director in global services and intelligence at FireEye.

“Every day or week, some new online service company wishes to know a little more about us and … there’s a profile stored in a database that we assume is protected. The reason 73 per cent are not concerned is because there hasn’t been a service where they’ve been exposed in the UAE.”

As Dubai’s vision continues to follow digitalisation, more data is being placed in one location. “Dubai will continue to put safeguards online but what may start happening is localised losses of data for people in the city,” he said. “And when they become public, we’ll see the unconcern drop heavily.”

There has been an increasing trend for cyber attacks to cause tremendous damage for users, organisations, industries and governments alike.

“Governments pay ransoms because they need access to their data,” Mr Hasbini said.

“Hackers have been using a weakness that enables them to spread. Many people also don’t install updates, which is something else to worry about.”