Research finds 40% of victims of CryptoLocker, a form of malware, have agreed to pay a ransom of around £300 to recover files.
The finding comes in the second Survey on Cyber Security by members of the University’s Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Cyber Security.
Their research also reveals that the prevalence of this type of ransomware (or malware) which makes personal files inaccessible by encrypting them – equates to approximately one case in 30, much higher than previous estimates suggested.
Other findings include 28.2% of respondents in the survey claim not to engage in any security practices online, such as using antivirus software, firewalls, and password management tools.
The Survey, which set out to explore the extent to which Britons have been affected by different forms of cybercrime, also found online security practices in Scotland to be better than in the rest of the UK.
The first survey, which released results in August 2013, revealed almost one in five people (18.4%) in the UK had their online accounts hacked, with some people (2.3%) losing more than £10,000 due to criminal activity.
The Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Cyber Security includes researchers from the University’s Sciences and Social Sciences faculties, and is led by the University’s School of Computing.
For more information contact Katie Newton.