Britons most clued up on cybersecurity – but too lazy to do anything about it, study finds

Britons most clued up on cybersecurity – but too lazy to do anything about it, study finds Britons were more confident at identifying phishing emails, scam texts, suspicious links and scam calls than other countries, the study showed - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Already a member? Log in Britons are smarter - but lazier - than other countries when it comes to cybersecurity, a new study has suggested. UK cybersecurity practices were compared with those of the United States, India, Brazil and Singapore as part of a study conducted by CybSafe in collaboration with the National Cybersecurity Alliance. A thousand people from each country responded to the survey that looked at attitudes and experience across cybercrime, AI and staying safe online. Britons showed a higher confidence than other countries when it came to identifying phishing emails, scam texts, suspicious links and scam calls, the study found. Some 67 per cent of Britons felt confident spotting a phishing scam, 70 per cent felt they could identify a suspicious link, 75 per cent were able to clock a scam phone call and 76 per cent could tell a scam text. Meanwhile, for Brazil, confidence for each of these scams ranged between 55 and 66 per cent; for India it ranged between 64 and 69 per cent and for the United States, respondent confidence ranged between 65 and 73 per cent. Only Singapore was slightly behind the UK, with confidence for identifying each scam ranging between 68 to 74 per cent. UK citizens were also the most likely of the five countries to always check messages for phishing signs (41 per cent), but the least likely to report them (37 per cent), the lowest reporting rate in the study. Dr Jason Nurse, reader in Cyber Security at the University of Kent, said the gap between checking and reporting phishing scams was “striking”. “One good security habit does not tell us whether someone takes the next step. We need to measure behaviours directly, understand what gets in the way and test whether the support people receive makes a difference.” Dr Suzie Dobrontei, a behavioural scientist for CybSafe who co-authored the study with Dr Nurse, said one reason people might not report scams is because they don’t want to look silly. “If there's a culture of blame in an organisation and when people are being told off clicking on phishing to begin with. Or if they report the wrong phishing emails, then it's very likely that people are going to stop doing it and they feel like it's safer to just move on or delete or do nothing, just say nothing. “Common reasons were also feeling like, shouting into a void. So a lot of people said that they don't know actually what happens after they record, they don't know whether it has any impact. “That's very common, and we see this in behavioural science in general, that when people exhibit a behaviour and they don't get any feedback on it, then that behaviour is not going to click.” Britons were ahead of counterparts for cybersecurity best practices; UK respondents reported the lowest use of personal information in passwords (31 per cent), and the highest regular use of multi-factor authentication (59 per cent). Despite showing some of the best cyber smarts, 57 per cent of Britons reported having no access to cybersecurity training at all. “The UK data shows people are already doing some of the right things,” said Oz Alashe, chief executive of CybSafe. “Organisations need to make it easier for them to take the next step. That means clear reporting routes, support when people need it and feedback that shows why reporting matters. Success is whether that support changes behaviour and reduces risk.” It comes after the Information Commissioner’s Office called on Brits to report spam robo calls last week as it launched an investigation into a surge in the number of complaints about automated nuisance calls. The ICO said that complaints about these calls had almost tripled in just three months, reaching its highest level since 2021, but it believes the reported figures are just a small proportion of the issue. "The numbers we're seeing are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg. We know many people simply hang up and move on without reporting what happened,” said Andy Curry, the ICO's head of criminal investigations. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments