Cyberattacks and digital scams have reached nearly everyone, with 9 in 10 adults having faced at least one such incident, according to research from Consumer Reports, Aspen Digital and the Global Cyber Alliance. The scale of the problem reflects how much personal information now lives online, from saved credit card details to social media photographs, leaving private lives easily accessible to criminals.
Consumer Reports chief executive Phil Radford described the figure as covering “almost everyone we serve”, adding that artificial intelligence is making fraud faster, cheaper and more personal. He called for companies to be held accountable and for governments to introduce meaningful safeguards.
Confidence in personal data privacy has fallen sharply. More than one in four adults, or 29%, are not confident at all that their sensitive information, such as a Social Security number or financial data, is protected. That figure has nearly doubled from the 16% recorded in the previous year’s survey. The proportion of adults who feel confident in the privacy of their sensitive data has shrunk from 48% to 32% over the same period.
How People Are Defending Themselves
Despite rising concern, many are taking steps to guard against fraud. Around 69% of respondents said they examine texts and emails closely before clicking, 60% use multifactor authentication and 48% enable automatic software updates. However, the research suggests individual efforts alone are not enough to counter the growing threat.
Recent incidents underline the risks, including the theft of FBI employees’ data, home routers being targeted by Russian military intelligence, and a rapid rise in cybersecurity incidents linked to the testing and training of AI models.
Why AI Raises the Stakes
Stacey Higginbotham, a policy fellow at Consumer Reports, said AI will make it easier for scammers to create personalised scams at scale while lowering the effort required to craft and send them. She noted that several measures could reduce scams, but policymakers have not taken serious action.
Potential legislative responses include the federal SCAM Act and the SAFE Platforms Act, which would penalise scammers who abuse online platforms with malicious tactics. Higginbotham argued that legislators could address the looming surge in AI-enabled scams by reinforcing the basics and making it more costly for companies to profit from scammers at the expense of consumers.
For now, she said the most important protective steps are to follow strong password practices, use different strong passwords for each account and enable multifactor authentication. She also advised carefully assessing all messages from strangers, whether or not they appear to be a scam.
