Nearly half of Australians fell victim to a cybercrime in 2024 despite increased confidence in technology

Nearly half of Australians fell victim to a cybercrime in 2024 despite more people feeling they were confident at using technology than the previous year.

According to the Cybercrime in Australia 2024 report released on Wednesday, 47.4 per cent or respondents said they had fallen victim to a cybercrime in the previous 12 months.

It was a slight rise from the 46.6 per cent who said they had been a victim of cybercrime in the previous report.

The most prevalent cybercrime reported was online abuse or harassment with 26.8 per cent of respondents saying they had fallen victim to it.

Nearly 22 per cent of respondents said they were a victim of an identity crime while 20.6 per cent had faced malware attacks.

Frauds and scams impacted 9.5 per cent of respondents while 25 per cent had been notified of a data breach of one of their accounts.

Young Australians, First Nations peoples and those in the LGBTQIA+ community were all at a higher risk of digital attacks.

Australian Institute of Criminology research manager and report author Anthony Morgan said despite a high numbers of victims, reporting remained low.

“What we found is that overall rates of victimisation from cyber crime remain high, reporting to police remains low and a large proportion of victims are negatively impacted by cyber crime,” he said.

“We still have room to improve in terms of people’s use of online safety strategies.”

Mr Morgan said the impacts of cyber crime went beyond the financial side of things.

“We often measure cyber crime in terms of financial losses, but when you survey the community, you get a different picture from what you see in reported data,” he said.

“Actually cyber crime within the broader community is a high volume, relatively low yield crime, so most people don’t lose large amounts of money but obviously a small proportion lose very large amounts of money.

“What we show in our survey is that the harms extend well beyond those financial losses, one in four respondents to the survey said they were negatively impacted by cyber crime that includes practical harms, social harms, health impacts, legal harms, as well as the financial losses.”

Despite the rise in cybercrime, an increase in respondents said they had either a moderate, high or very high ability to use technology, rising from 88.4 per cent to 89.2 per cent over 12 months.

Mr Morgan said it was important to not be complacent, even if you think you’re well versed in using technology.

“We know that being more confident online and having what might be called digital literacy, it doesn’t protect you from falling victim,” he said.

“What increases the likelihood of falling victim is how you behave online, the sorts of websites you visit, the sorts of activities you engage in online, and whether you’re taking those safe steps to protect yourself.

“That’s what makes a difference for people’s online safety.”

Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security Burke urged Australians to take steps to make themselves more safe online.

“Keeping Australians safe online is a national priority — and this research helps ensure our response is evidence-based, targeted, and effective.

“Remember these three simple steps to stay safe online – always install the latest software updates, use unique passphrases, and enable multifactor authentication wherever it’s available.”