Every third Russian fell victim to illegal actions related to the use of mobile communications and Internet services.
MOSCOW, January 11, 2017. Russian Public Opining research Center (VCIOM) presents the results of a survey describing how many Russians have faced mobile and cyber crime or are afraid to be the victims of such crimes.
About one-third of Russian happened to face illegal acts related to mobile communication and internet services (31%). This share is bigger among youth (36% of the 18-34-year-olds), residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg (37%), active Internet users (38%) and residents of middle cities (43%) than among elderly respodnents (21% of those aged 60 and over), rural area residents (24%) and those who almost never use the world wide network. Sixty-eight percent of respondents report not to have faced similar problems.
The biggest concern refers to bank card and online account money theft as well as the identity theft (65%). As to other cyber crimes, the level of anxiety is lower but it still exceeds the 50% threshold. Fifty-eight per cent of Russians are afraid to lose money due to fraud, and 56% are afraid of misleading information spread via sms messages or emails.
Only 36% of Russians feel protected against these type of risks (44% among men; 45% of those aged 18-24; 39% of permanent Internet users), while 58% are likely to feel vulnerable (64% among women; 65% among those aged 45-59).
*Anxiety index is based on the question: “Are you afraid or not afraid of facing the following situation?” The Index is calculated as the difference between the sum of positive and the sum of negative values. The Index can vary between -100 and 100. The higher the value of Index is, the less anxiety respondents have.
**Protection Index is based on the question: “Generally speaking, do you think you are protected against the following crimes or not?” The Index is calculated as the difference between the sum of positive and the sum of negative values. The Index can vary between -100 and 100 points. The higher the value of Index is, the more respondents feel protected against crimes.
The VCIOM survey was conducted on December 10-11, 2016 in 130 settlements, 46 oblasts, krais and republics and 8 federal districts of Russia, with a sample of 1600 persons representative of the Russian population aged 18 and over according to sex, age, education, type of settlement. The survey was conducted with multi-stage stratified sample based on general rule of walking and quotas at the final selection stage. The margin of error (taking into account the design effect) with 95% confidence interval does not exceed 3.5%. The survey method is community-based structured face-to-face interviews. Apart from the margin of error, minor changes in question wording and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork should be taken into account.
Sometimes people face illegal actions related to mobile and online communications and services such as attempts to steal money on the Internet and sending email with misleading information that is not true or attempts to steal personal data or hack social media accounts. Have you experienced similar situations? (closed-ended question, one answer, %) |
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| Total respondents | Aged 18-24 | Aged 25-34 | Aged 35-44 | Aged 45-59 | Aged 60 and over | Those who use the Internet almost every day | Those who use the Internet several times a week or a month | Those who use the Internet occasionally or never use it | |
Yes, I have | 31 | 36 | 36 | 33 | 30 | 21 | 38 | 28 | 17 | |
No, I haven’t | 68 | 62 | 64 | 67 | 70 | 77 | 61 | 72 | 81 | |
Don’t know | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
Now I will read out several situations and ask you to tell me if you are afraid or not afraid to face the following situations? (closed-ended question, one answer per each line, %) | ||||||
| I am completely afraid | Likely not to be afraid | Likely to be afraid | Very afraid | Don’t know | Anxiety Index* |
Bank card and online account money theft | 14 | 19 | 43 | 22 | 2 | -32 |
Identity theft (surname, name, passport data, et cet.) | 13 | 20 | 42 | 23 | 2 | -32 |
Loss of money due to misleading information (aid requests, fundraising scams et cet.) | 20 | 20 | 38 | 20 | 2 | -18 |
Receiving false or untrue information via sms messages or emails | 20 | 21 | 39 | 17 | 3 | -15 |
Unauthorized access to your personal data (email, social media account) | 23 | 20 | 35 | 20 | 2 | -12 |
Man-made disasters (caused by hackers who gained access to the nuclear power and ballistic missile control) | 21 | 21 | 29 | 23 | 6 | -10 |
Speaking in general, do you feel protected against similar crimes or not? If you feel safe, tell us to what extent? (closed-ended question, one answer, %) | |||||||||
| Total respondents | Aged 18-24 | Aged 25-34 | Aged 35-44 | Aged 45-59 | Aged 60 and over | Those who use the Internet almost every day | Those who use the Internet several times a week or a month | Those who use the Internet occasionally or never use it |
Definitely protected | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 7 |
Likely protected | 32 | 42 | 37 | 33 | 27 | 26 | 36 | 29 | 25 |
Likely not protected | 38 | 29 | 36 | 37 | 43 | 36 | 36 | 48 | 36 |
Definitely not protected | 20 | 21 | 17 | 22 | 22 | 20 | 21 | 15 | 22 |
Don’t know | 6 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 12 | 4 | 5 | 10 |
Protection Index** | -22 | -5 | -12 | -22 | -35 | -24 | -18 | -31 | -26 |
Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!