One in three Australians exposed to data breaches in the past 12 months

6.4 million Australian adults were victims of data breaches over the last 12 months, according to a new survey conducted by the Australian National University.

32.1 per cent of the 3,500 Australians surveyed for the ANU paper on data breaches in Australia said that they or a member of their household had been exposed to a data breach in the past year.

The paper flags that this is likely to be an underestimate of the true number of households affected, given there are cases of people being unaware of when their personal data has been the subject of a data breach.

Additionally, as the survey was conducted weeks prior to Medibank’s public announcement of its recent data breach, where data on 9.7 million current and past customers was leaked, the real number of Australians exposed to cybercrime is almost certainly significantly higher.

In comparison, only 11.2 per cent of Australians surveyed said that they were victims of serious crimes such as burglary or assault over the past five years.

This stark difference exposes the wide prevalence of cybercrime, making it one of the fastest growing types of crimes in Australia.

According to the report, the age group most vulnerable to data breaches were Australians aged 25 to 34, with 41.5 per cent of those surveyed reporting that they had been victims of data breaches.

With the survey conducted in October 2022 shortly after the Optus data breach, the report found a large decline in trust for telecommunications companies with regards to data privacy.

To read the full paper, visit the Australian National University website here.