You could be at greater risk of becoming the victim of cybercrime this Cyber Monday. It may come down to your location, age and, yes, sex.
That is according to OpenVPN, a provider of networking and software technologies, which looked at cybercrime data from the FBI and the Consumer Sentinel Network, a consumer complaints database generally available only to law enforcement, from 2015 and 2016. The research focused on fraud, identity theft and internet crime.
Shoppers are expected to spend a record $6.6 billion on Cyber Monday this year, according to estimates from Adobe Insights. At the same time, attacks against consumers increase by about 40 percent on Cyber Monday, according to OpenVPN.
The results of the research, shown in the map from OpenVPN below, reveal which states had the most cybercrime victims and who was most likely to be affected based on age and sex. (Click on graphic below to enlarge.)
The research found that men become the victims of cybercrime 75 percent more often than women. Men also shop online more than women, according to OpenVPN.
"Shopping online saves neither time nor money if your data is stolen by hackers, mined and sold for profit on the black market of the dark web," said Francis Dinha, CEO and co-founder of OpenVPN.
Dinha suggests shoppers look for two-factor authentication with all purchases, such as receiving a digital code through your smartphone or a link to your personal email in order to verify your identity and complete a purchase. Online payment systems including Apple Pay, Amazon Pay and PayPal typically include a second layer of security, according to Dinha.