In the first major survey of Canadians’ attitudes to cyber security and the financial industry, RBC partnered with Ipsos to survey more than 2,000 Canadians on their cyber knowledge to gain more insight into Canadians’ concerns about cyber security and the steps they can take to protect themselves.
While 77% of Canadians believe they are knowledgeable on cyber security, only 16% could identify the majority of cyber terms correctly. Nearly two-thirds (61%) could not identify the term “phishing”, which describes an email designed to trick the recipient into clicking a link or opening an attachment in an effort to steal information or install malicious software.
“As our world becomes increasingly connected through the internet of things, there are more reasons for Canadians to learn how to protect themselves and their data,” said Laurie Pezzente, Chief Security Officer & Senior Vice-President of Global Cyber Security, RBC.
“The survey results show we need to help educate our clients to actively safeguard themselves against malicious activity.”
While millennials lead the way in terms of cyber security knowledge over all other age groups, they were also the least concerned about safeguarding their personal information.
More than half of millennials surveyed were more likely to agree that they wouldn’t know what to do if they were a victim of a cyber-crime, significantly higher than 48% of Gen Xers and 40% of Baby Boomers.
Check out the complete survey online here.
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