Female internet users are less concerned about protecting themselves against online threats than men, according to a survey by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International.
Results show that only 19% of women believe they may fall victim to cybercriminals while every fourth man (25%) considers it possible.
Moreover, women generally know less about cyberthreats than men. For example, 27% of men and 38% of women are unaware of ransomware; 23% of men and 34% of women know little about mobile malware; and 21% of men and 34% of women have a limited idea what an exploit is.
This lack of awareness can cause women to pay less attention to protecting themselves against cyberthreats. When they allow other people (children, friends, colleagues, etc.) to use their main device, 36% of women do nothing to protect their data because they “see no risk”. Only 28% of men behave in the same way.
Also, 75% of men and by 68% of women make back-up copies while 13% of women have no security solutions on their devices compared with 10% of men.
Findings also suggest that over a 12-month period, more men than women faced malware incidents (35% vs 27%), and men were more likely to suffer financial consequences (22% vs 19%).
Typically, men more often spend money on buying special programs designed to clean the system or to protect it in the future whereas women prefer to turn to IT professionals for help.
Further, 47% of men but just 39% of women in 2014 encountered cyberattacks targeting users’ financial data. This may be because women are particularly concerned about the security of financial transactions compared with other online activities.
Thus, 59% of men and 64% of women are worried about the risk of online fraud affecting their bank accounts while 46% of men and 51% women feel vulnerable when making online payments.
In addition, female respondents are slightly more worried about someone spying on them via their webcam (41% vs 38%).