My Dad is in his mid 60’s and retired. And the man knows how to live. A day doesn’t go by without him taking a class and learning something new.
But one thing he’s always been behind on is technology. His generation missed it by about 20 years. So for the past 5 years I’ve been pushing him to get an iPhone. He swore he’d never text and wouldn’t need the Internet on the go. Recently he got one, and now I’m getting text messages every 10 minutes from him. He takes Apple classes and teaches me things about the iPhone I never knew.
Today McAfee released the results of their Digital Assets survey and found that most people are connected and are spending more time online and getting more devices. How do you stack up?
- Nearly 90% (88%) of consumers own multiple digital devices, with 62% owning three or more and 20% owning 5 or more
- More than half consumers (51%) spend 15 hours or more on their digital devices for personal use each week, which equates to more than two hours per day—men spend more time than women on their devices
And with the explosion of all the digital devices, we are storing more and more assets on these devices. In fact the study showed that on average globally we have over $35,000 worth of assets stored on our devices. This includes things like:
- Personal memories (photos, videos) are what we as consumers value the most and women value these more than men
- Consumers in Singapore, Brazil and Germany place a higher value on personal records (health information, financial records, wills/trusts) than consumers in other countries
- Not surprising, millenials (18-24 year olds) who grew up in the digital world (and have probably never owned a CD), place a higher value on entertainment files (music, tv shows, ebooks, video games, apps) than other age groups and consumers in India rate their entertainment files higher than other countries
- Italian and UK consumers have the most personal communication assets stored on their digital devices
And while we have all these device and have valuable assets on them, we don’t take enough precautions to protect our valuable assets. Nearly 15% of consumers globally don’t have comprehensive security on ANY of their devices and 20% are unfamiliar with cyber risks and security dangers.
Yet, most consumers (72%) are concerned with identity theft, monetary theft or fraud when online and 55% of us store digital assets on our devices that would be impossible to recreate, re-download or re-purchase.
That’s why with all that’s at stake, protecting all your devices and the data on them has never been more critical. That’s why McAfee today announced McAfee® LiveSafeTM, the first unlimited cross-device security service to use cutting-edge facial and voice recognition technology to protect users’ digital lives.
At this point even my old man knows securing your digital assets is a requirement. And it doesn’t matter if you are on a PC, Mac or mobile, bad guys are targeting anyone connected to the Net.
If you’d like to see if you know about the value of your digital assets, play the $35,000 Question game on Facebook and enter to win some prizes like an Ultrabook!
Robert Siciliano is an Online Security Expert to McAfee. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Mobile was Hacked! (Disclosures)