Young people at risk due to apathy towards online protection

One in five people believe cyber-security incidents will not affect them despite half of all New Zealanders being exposed to cyber-attacks last year, according to a new report.

CERT NZ’s 2024 Cyber Security Behaviour Tracker found that New Zealanders are becoming increasingly exposed to cyber-security threats, making them more aware and taking positive actions to protect themselves online.

Despite this, the report found that 18 per cent of those surveyed believe they will not be affected by a cyber security threat.

Shaun Fitzgibbon, Managing Partner at TRA, who provided the data for the report, says that this group is largely comprised of younger people.

“All people need to be vigilant, and it looks like younger people feel like they have more capability, so their confidence is higher.”

Fitzgibbon says that confidence is increasing apathy among young people not to take action to protect themselves online.

“There’s that confidence in that they feel assured they can protect themselves, but when it comes to the actual action, there’s a kind of feeling that ‘I can’t be bothered, I keep forgetting to’, or they don’t have time.”

Sam Leggett, CERT NZ Senior Threat and Incident Response Coordinator says that increased confidence and lack of action can increase people’s risk of cyber-related incidents.

“Password reuse and using the same password across all accounts poses a significant risk to individuals losing those accounts or having them stolen.”

He says that people usually only take up cyber-security actions after they experience these kinds of attacks.

“Which is unfortunate because we definitely want to encourage people to take action ahead of time because prevention is always a lot easier than recovery.”

The report found that emotional harm is the most common type of harm experienced in a cyber-related incident, followed by time-wasting and financial.

“Taking steps to make sure we are protected online will actually help to prevent that kind of harm from occurring as a result.”

Leggett emphasises the importance of protecting yourself online, as you never know when or where a cyber-attack may threaten you.

“We really want to encourage people to take these steps proactively ahead of time to prevent the bad stuff from happening. Don’t wait for an accident to happen.”

He advises people to use two-factor authentication and a password manager. More information can be found about these at Own Your Online.

Listen here as Ryan asks CERT NZ’s Sam Leggett about password managers and two-factor authentication.