Cybersecurity company Bitdefender has released the Bitdefender Global Report on Cybersecurity and Online Behaviors, which reveals how users of various age groups and sociodemographic profiles behave on the most popular platforms, applications and devices.
The report's data shows that despite the rise in threats and heightened concerns about cybercrime, users continue to lack basic practices to secure data, protect their identities, and share information.
However, this report also reveals that Spanish users are more responsible and aware of their online security than the average of those surveyed in the rest of the world.
The report, based on a survey of more than 10,000 Internet users in 11 countries (809 Spanish), examines the use of popular online platforms and services, personal cybersecurity practices and level of exposure to threats, among others.
Spanish users are more aware than the average in the use of secure passwords. 48% of Spaniards use a different password for each account, compared to 22% of those surveyed worldwide. Only 20% of those surveyed in our country use a single password for all their online accounts, while this percentage rises to 50% globally. Regarding the mobile phone, only 16% of Spaniards are not protecting it adequately (30% overall), since they use a simple password such as 1234 or none at all.
A third of Spanish users (32%) do not use an antivirus on their main mobile device (either phone or tablet), especially in the case of iPhones. This percentage is similar in the rest of the world, where almost 35% do not have their mobile devices protected. The most common reasons cited for this were: 23% of Spaniards think mobile phones don't need it, 21% think it's too expensive, and 21% think security is built in. Furthermore, 42% of Spaniards do not use private browsers and more than half (54%) do not use a VPN on their mobile phone.
However, only 9% of Spanish users do not use any security product or service on their most used device for personal online activities. This percentage rises to 15% in the rest of the world.
Lack of child supervision presents great safety risks. Parents were asked how much they monitored their children's Internet browsing behaviors and app installation. The survey found that an average of 27% of Spanish children have full unsupervised access to computers, mobile phones and tablets, compared to a global average of 36% and 50% in the United States, which leads the ranking in terms of unsupervised access.
Smartphones are the preferred devices for accessing online services. More than three-quarters of Spanish respondents (86%) and 74% globally mainly access online services using their personal smartphone and, specifically, 78% (61% worldwide) do so with a mobile with the Android operating system. Personal laptops ranked second (46%), followed by smart TVs and desktop PCs, both at 27%.
Spanish users mainly use their own devices to access their personal accounts. Only 16% of respondents use work devices to access their personal online accounts, compared to 23% globally. On the other hand, in Spain, the use of an Android phone as the main device is the highest in all the countries surveyed, together with Romania. In addition, the use of mobile phones is slightly lower after 55 years of age, being the iPhone most used among young Spanish people between 18 and 34 years of age.
Personally identifiable information is commonly shared. Personally identifiable data, including name, date of birth, and even physical address, is commonly shared online, and men are more likely than women to share this data. Gender is the most shared information, with 53% of Spanish respondents always or almost always sharing it, followed by personal email address (45%), name (44%), date of birth (38 %) and physical address (33%). Young people between the ages of 18 and 24 are more likely to share their personal information than other age groups. For their part, men are slightly more open than women to sharing their credit card number.