According to a survey carried out jointly by B2B International and Kaspersky Lab, 41% of South African respondents who share an Internet-enabled device with their relatives, colleagues or friends do not take any precautions to protect their information.
They see no risks associated with sharing these devices even though it can significantly increase the chances of data stored on the device being lost or stolen. In fact, the more people use a device, the greater the probability of one of them making a mistake and falling for a cybercriminal trick.
Today, the owner of a computer, phone or tablet is often not the only person who uses that device to access the Internet – two respondents in five reported sharing devices. At least 32% of respondents share devices with other adults in their household, 8% give them to their children, while 4% even allow colleagues and other acquaintances to use their devices. This applies to the devices which are most often used to access the Internet, which means they are most likely to hold valuable data, such as account logins and passwords.
Leaving a shared device unprotected is extremely dangerous – nobody can be entirely sure that other users are sufficiently aware of cyber threats: an inexperienced user may fall for a scammers’ bait or download a malicious executable file. At the same time, 33% of those respondents who share their computers, phones and tablets with others do not take any security measures, because they “do not see any risks”.
Only 37% of users make backup copies of important data before giving a device to somebody else, 33% password-protect their data and 21% try not to store any important information on such devices.
“Sharing a computer or smartphone increases the risk of malware infection, data loss or account theft, so it is important to take precautions: always keep backup copies of important files; delete information that should not fall into the wrong hands, especially by disabling from autofill; try to control user access rights on the device and – most importantly – use programmes that provide protection against cyber threats,” says Peter Aleshkin, consumer marketing group manager: Emerging Markets at Kaspersky Lab.
