Poll: Americans more worried about cyber crimes than other crimes

Americans are more worried about being the victim of a cyber crime than other, conventional crimes, according to a Gallup poll released Monday.

The survey found 67 percent of adults worry at least occasionally about computer hackers stealing their personal or financial information and 66 percent are concerned about being a victim of identity theft.

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The gap between fear of cyber crimes and the next most pressing concern — having your car stolen or broken into — was 28 percentage points.

The question about hackers stealing information, which took the top spot, was added this year. 

A number of recent cyber crimes and data breaches may have led to the heightened concern, according to Gallup.

Last month, Equifax revealed 145.5 million Americans were affected by a data breach that exposed Social Security numbers, birthdates and other information.

A data breach announced in 2016 is believed to have affected all 3 billion accounts on Yahoo. Names, emails, addresses and phone numbers were among the information at risk, the company said.

Gallup has conducted an annual crime poll since 2000 but only began asking about concerns regarding identity theft in 2009. Since then, the percentage who said they worried about such a crime has hovered between 66 percent and 70 percent, according to Gallup.

Other responses in the poll saw 36 percent of adults say they worry about their home being burglarized while they aren’t there; 30 percent said they worry about being the victim of terrorism; and 26 percent worry about having a school-aged child being physically harmed at school. 

The poll was conducted from Oct. 5-11 with a random sample of 1,028 adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.