More than half of connected Brazilians suffered cyberattacks

More than 60 percent of the Brazilian population with Internet access has been targeted by cybercriminals, according to a report by Symantec.

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This means that some 62 million Brazilians have suffered such attacks and each victim spent about 34 hours dealing with the consequences of the incident.

Cyberattacks generated losses of $22 billion in Brazil, says the report. The country is second only to China in terms of the countries that have seen the greatest financial impact from cyberattacks perpetrated in 2017.

Millennials are the most frequent victims, with 26 percent of those polled saying they do not use any method to protect their devices. In addition, they are most likely to share their passwords.

Among the Brazilian respondents, 59 percent share their passwords, while 34 percent write the their passwords on paper, and 24 percent use the same password for all their online accounts.

The most shared passwords are those of the connected home devices (38 percent), followed by desktops (37 percent) and laptops (36 percent).

Protection against malicious threats is the biggest concern about online security in Brazil, while identity protection and privacy come second. While most consumers acknowledge they should have some sort of security tool on their devices, 19 percent do not use any.