Cyber Attacks Primary Threat to Australia, Others

The year 2020 presented us with a new challenge — Covid-19, which has impacted the majority of the world. Nevertheless, according to data presented by the Atlas VPN team, 70% of Australians and 66% of Danes named cyber attacks as the primary threat to their countries when asked about top global risks.

In Australia, the fear of cyber attacks is closely followed by the fear of the pandemic, with 68% of residents citing it as a significant threat. Danes, on the other hand, regard climate change as the second biggest risk, with 60% of Danes believing it poses a great danger to the country.

While both the South Korean and the US residents cited the spread of infectious diseases as the top-most threat, cyber attacks came in as the second most frequently mentioned major risk at 83% and 74% respectively.

If we consider data from all 14 surveyed countries, cyber attacks are perceived as the fourth most serious risk globally at 65%, only behind global climate change (70%), the spread of infectious diseases (69%), and terrorism (66%).

Older people are more worried about security

Different generations perceive global threats differently. Generally, the population of over 50 year-olds is more likely to name global threats, including cyber attacks, as major concerns.

In Denmark, 79% of those aged 50 and more believe that cyber attacks pose a substantial threat to their country, compared to only 43% of those aged 18 to 29.

In Australia, cyber attacks are considered a serious threat by 80% of those aged 50 and above and 52% of those aged 18 to 29.

Furthermore, in the US, 83% of people above 50 years old think cyber attacks constitute a significant threat compared to 61% of 18 to 29-year-olds.

However, in South Korea, 30 to 49-year-olds expressed more concern over the cyber attack threat (88%) compared to 87% of Koreans aged above 50 and 65% of Koreans aged 18 to 29.