And a recent survey from Honeywell, a global technology solution company, found\u00a0three-quarters (75%) of adults across the globe fear becoming the victim of a cyber attack.<\/p>\n
So what’s the problem exactly?<\/p>\n
What is a cyber attack?<\/h2>\n
A cyber attack is an attempt by hackers to illegally enter, damage or bring down a computer system or network, often by planting malicious code or data via malicious software (malware).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Are cyber attacks impossible to stop?<\/h2>\n
The Honeywell survey questioned adults across 10 countries and found over a third (36%) don’t believe it would be possible to stop a cyber attack if terrorists struck.<\/p>\n
And more than a third (36%) don’t feel their nation’s leaders are taking the threat of cyber attacks seriously enough to be able to deal with one should their country be targeted.<\/p>\n
Respondents in India (61%), China (48%) and Mexico (47%) had the least faith in their governments’ ability to deal with cyber attacks.<\/p>\n
Prone to attack<\/h2>\n
The survey \u00a0also asked people which sectors they felt were most vulnerable to attack – almost two-thirds (64%) of respondents thought gas and oil refineries were most susceptible, closely followed by medical, health care, and pharmaceutical sites (64%), and electricity grids (63%).<\/p>\n
The UK government estimates cyber security breaches at British energy companies cost around \u00a3400 million.<\/p>\n
Almost all respondents from India (92%) are fearful of cyber attacks, with the Japanese (89%) not far behind.<\/p>\n
No worries,\u00a0comrade<\/h2>\n
Conversely, Russians were the least fearful of attack, with just over half of respondents (53%) expressing any level of concern. Australia were just behind with 52%.<\/p>\n
Of those that weren’t too concerned about\u00a0a cyber attack, just under a third (31%) thought the chance of anything happening was actually very low, while a quarter (25%) thought an attack would already have happened if terrorists actually had the capabilities.<\/p>\n
Just under a quarter (24%) beleive\u00a0computer and internet security to be advanced enough to counter any threat, while as many people had faith in government and military intelligence to stop any attacks.<\/p>\n
Everyday cyber attacks<\/h2>\n
While high level cyber attacks are uncommon, cyber attacks – or at least attempted cyber attacks – on individuals are more common.<\/p>\n
Among the most common type of cyber attack on the individual are phishing attacks – whereby fraudulent emails are sent to try and trick you into parting with sensitive information – and Trojan horse attacks – whereby innocent-looking computer programs actually contain malware that can scrape sensitive information from your system.<\/p>\n
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