It appears South Africans are more concerned about having their personal data stolen than they are about their homes being broken into.

A survey by IT company Citrix and UK research firm Opinium, which studied attitudes towards personal and professional data security of 1 000 of the country’s full-time workers, found that 51% of respondents would feel more violated if files were looted compared to finding an intruder lurking around their property – and 57% feel more vulnerable to cyberattacks than they did a year ago.

According to a Fin24 report, data theft has never been more of a concern that what it is now, especially since identity theft in 2014 alone contributed to the loss of ZAR1 billion from South African companies.

According to Brendan McAravey, country manager for Citrix South Africa, protecting information and digital identities against hackers is crucial, both at work and home, especially as criminals are increasingly using more sophisticated methods to lay their hands on personal data.

2 August 2016
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