The majority of Americans have personally experienced a data breach, but are failing to follow adequate security practices and lack confidence in outside institutions to keep their information safe.
New research from the Pew Research Center shows that 64% of Americans have experienced a 'major' data breach, including fraudulent credit card charges, compromised account numbers, and email account takeovers.
And even though many improvements have been made in cybersecurity technologies and best practices, and growing security awareness, 49% of Americans think their data is less secure than it was five years ago.
Maybe that's because only 12% of those surveyed have a high level of confidence that the government or social media sites can actually protect their personal information.
However, Americans aren't that great at securing their own data either. 69% of adults surveyed admitted that they don't worry about how secure their passwords are, and 84% rely only on memorizing their password or writing it down as their method of password management.
And when it comes to encryption, Americans are torn. 46% feel that when a crime occurs, the government should be able to access encrypted communications, while 44% believe the opposite. It's skewed higher for the younger generation, who favor encryption that's unbreakable to the government.
"Despite their concerns and experiences, most Americans do not express profound worries about cybersecurity in their personal lives or in their expectations for various public institutions." the study says.
It's not a good sign for cybersecurity health if a majority of Americans don't think their data is going to be sufficiently protected, and then don't really care if it is anyways. Breaches are still occurring, and at greater frequencies, taking harder hits.
We're looking at you Yahoo!
