It’s needless to say, then, that plenty of Americans are worried over their own personal data getting breached. And a new report from U.S. News has delved deep into these concerns.
This report — titled “Digital Privacy Survey Report 2024″ — was based on the survey responses of about 1,200 adults across the United States, who answered digital privacy-specific questions ranging from passwords to whether or not they, personally, ever experienced having their private data compromised.
As far as the latter is concerned, 61 percent stated they’ve learned that their personal data had been breached at someone point on at least one of their accounts. Another 44 percent said they’ve had this happen to them multiple times.
This, unsurprisingly, has led 65 percent of respondents to remain concerned about cyber attack occurring in 2024. FBI director Christopher Wray has undoubtedly exacerbated these after, The New York Times reports, warning citizens that China is gearing up for a cyber attack on American infrastructure.
But it’s not all doom and gloom on the digital landscape: 80 percent of the U.S. News’s survey respondents feel pretty confident that they’d recognize a phishing email if they saw one, and another 42 percent would stake a claim that they’ve never clicked on a phishing email at all.
Even 55 percent think that’s it’s completely possible to avoid being the victim of a data breach entirely, and 48 percent have confidence that a subscription password manager app would keep such information safe.
“Americans largely understand the risks of using the Internet — identity theft, spam, phishing, loss of personal or financial information, and more,” reads the report. “Yet a relatively small percentage are taking steps recommended by experts to protect their data, such as using password managers to set strong passwords or pursuing credit monitoring after a breach.”
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