The rise and impact of digital amnesia: why we need to protect what we no longer remember

The internet and internet-enabled devices have transformed our everyday lives and relationships. We entrust them with our precious personal information including contacts and images and rely on them to connect us to a vast repository of knowledge, anytime, anywhere. As part of its commitment to help people protect what matters most in their online-enabled world, Kaspersky Lab wanted to better understand how digital devices and the internet affect the way consumers recall and use information today – and what, if anything, they are doing to protect it. We commissioned research firm Opinion Matters to survey 6,000 consumers, aged between 16 and 55+, split equally between male and female, with 1,000 from each of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Benelux. The results suggest a direct link between data available at the click of a button and a failure to commit that data to memory. Kaspersky Lab has termed this phenomenon Digital Amnesia: the experience of forgetting information that you trust a digital device to store and remember for you

Consumer security risks survey: from scared to aware - digital lives in 2015

Introduction In 2015, just under half (43%) the world’s population has an Internet connection: 3.2 billion people, compared to 2.9 billion in July 2014. The Internet brings communications, shopping, entertainment, news, education, work and more to anyone, anytime, anywhere and on any device. But our threat research shows that these same channels can be, and increasingly are also used by criminals, malicious attackers, terrorists and even bullies. Some are simply out to hurt, disrupt or destabilize; others are after money or identities; and a few of the most dangerous have set their sights on political or business intelligence or even critical national infrastructure such as electricity networks. In one way or another, everyone is at risk. And all those people and groups with malicious intent keep a close eye on evolving digital technology. Every new development, every new device and every new operating system is explored for vulnerabilities. They also exploit human behaviour, such as a lack of digital literacy and an innate tendency to trust. In order to better understand how Internet users across the world perceive, prepare for and are impacted by current online threats, Kaspersky Lab, together with research company B2B International, undertakes a comprehensive annual global research study. The study explores device ownership and Internet use, as well as awareness and experience of current cyberthreats