Indian Internet users store under-protected digital assets worth Rs 25 lakh

Indian internet users place an indicative value of Rs 25 lakh on their owned “digital assets” stored across their digital devices, according to McAfee’s new ‘Digital Assets Survey’. According to the survey, India has the second highest perceived value of their total digital assets, preceded by North American (U.S. and Canada) having an average cited value of $52,154 (Rs 31 lakh).

This is compared with an average value of $28,461 across Europe (U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands), $23,938 in Japan and $20,948 in Australia.
The survey, administered across Indian respondents in the age group of 18-65 years comprising 680 male and 321 female respondents, revealed 60 percent of respondents store digital assets on devices that would be impossible to re-create, re-download or re-purchase.

About 62 percent and 85 percent claimed that they do not protect smartphones and tablets with comprehensive security, respectively.

“With the proliferation and adoption of multiple internet enabled devices in Indian households, there is a compelling need to store and secure personal data and identity across all the devices,” said Jagdish Mahapatra, managing director, India and SAARC, McAfee, part of Intel Security.

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Almost half of the surveyed Indian respondents said they personally own three-to four devices in their houses. Of this, 49 percent were male and 46 percent were female respondents.

The online survey showed 33 percent of the respondents said they spend between 5 and 10 hours a week on their mobile devices and 24 percent of the people said they spend more than 20 hours on their mobile devices for personal use.

While 70 percent of respondents secure their Windows based laptop and 66 percent said they secure their PCs, only 15 percent claimed to protect their tablets with comprehensive security software.

Further, only 38 percent of the respondents secure their smartphones. “Smartphones and tablets are more likely to be targeted by hackers due to its huge proliferation. However, the respondents are yet to adopt the right security measures to secure their smartphones and tablets,” McAfee added.

Nearly 76 percent of the surveyed respondents are most concerned by software and hardware damage from viruses and malware whereas 60 percent of the people are most concerned about Identity theft, monetary theft and/or fraud due to their online activities.

According to the report, 52 percent of the respondents worry about loss of digital assets (photos, contacts, music files, etc.). About 29 percent claimed to have personal memories whose digital value would be between Rs 5,000-25,000. In addition, 10 percent have hobbies and projects saved whose cost in digital value would be between Rs 25,000-55,000.