The University oF Kent in the UK has revealed new figures to show the extent to which Cybercrime affects people in the UK.

Nearly one in five people have had their online accounts hacked with some people losing more than £10,000 ($15000) due to criminal activity.

The findings are part of a Survey on Cyber Security, which revealed that despite the minority being affected by online crime, those that were suffered considerable losses.

Dr Julio Hernandez-Castro, from the Centre for Cyber Security, said:

“These up-to-date survey results on how cybercrime is affecting British citizens will undermine some misconceptions and make it easier to understand where to best focus our research efforts for designing new solutions to combat cybercrime.”

Other findings include the revelation that over 6% of people have had their accounts compromised on more than one occasion and that survey respondents aged 55-64 were the least likely age group to be successfully targeted by online crime, with some 90% confirming that they had not been victims of security breaches to their online accounts. This, according to the researchers, could be attributed to this age group spending less time online, having fewer activities and accounts or, more generally, being more cautious and security aware when online.

The Survey, which set out to explore the extent to which Britons have been affected by cybercrime, also revealed that despite the majority of respondents not being significantly affected by online crime, those who had been suffered considerable losses.

The Survey on Cyber Security can be viewed at http://www.cyber.kent.ac.uk/Survey1.pdf