A survey of average Australians across the country has found that people feel more confident and secure than they did in the past two years and even fears of cyber crime are falling, despite increased news reports of cyber assaults on corporate Australia.
The 2023 Australian Security Confidence Index (ASCI), commissioned by the Australian Security Industry Associations Ltd (ASIAL), shows that the average person is less concerned about COVID-19 and cybercrime than in previous years, even though scams and cyber-attacks, digital data breaches and so on are common.
Nevertheless, Australians remain most concerned about cyber-attacks (31%), followed by robbery (24%) and physical assault (21%).
Feeling unsafe while using personal IT is relatively stable and is dominated by concerns about using foreign retailers (31%).
There has been a slight increase in the number of Australians that feel unsafe from the risks of terrorist attacks, robbery or assaults (46% up from 44% in 2022).
Those who work out of other Australians’ homes and those who work in the IT industry are twice as likely to feel unsafe.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been subject to repeated warnings from medical experts and government authorities for people to remain careful and alert.
Whilst it has had a major impact on Australians’ lives over the past few years, COVID-19 seems to be losing its impact on safety perceptions.
COVID-19 was as high as #4 on the list of reasons why Australians felt unsafe going about their daily lives in 2021 but is now mentioned by only 1% of survey respondents.
There has been a significant decrease in feeling unsafe, due to becoming desensitised to COVID-19, according to the ASCI survey.
Concern about being in cinemas is down 9% from last year, being at the airport is down 6%, and going to restaurants and bars are down 4%.
Australians also feel safer in education facilities during the day (fears are down 5%), using taxis (down 4%), going to shopping centres and using public transport (both down 3%) and being in the city/CBD (down 2%).
Additionally, we are feeling safer about going to the doctor/medical centres (concerns down 5%) and to the hospital (down 2%).
Night-time activities remain the top reason for feeling unsafe.
Australians feel most unsafe at night using public transport (30%), being at local parks / sports grounds (30%), and walking their local streets (27%).
While COVID-19 has changed the way Australians live, work and shop, its impact on our safety perceptions is waning in all areas.
With the easing of COVID-19 concerns, now 28% of Australians feel unsafe at any point in activities during daylight hours.
This is significantly lower than last year (38%).
Safety concern levels remain elevated (50%) when doing these same activities after dark.
The activities we now feel significantly safer doing during the day are ones where we are likely to be in enclosed areas with crowds such as going to bars and restaurants or going to the airport, both down 6% and being in cinemas down 11% – another reduction linked to a reduced COVID 19 threat.
Australians feel most unsafe during the day using public transport (12%), using taxis (11%) and being in the city/CBD (9%), however, the reasoning is now related to feeling unsafe from crime/violence.
Females remain more likely to feel at risk.
At work, cyber security fears have decreased significantly to 36% from 41% in 2022.
This has been driven by a decline in concern about using social media (18% compared with 23% in 2022) and fears about being at work have halved (3% compared with 6% in 2022), a decline most likely COVID-19 related.
Work-based concerns are still led by using foreign retailers to shop at (21%) followed by using social media and a work email for private conversations (both 18%).
The longitudinal study commissioned by ASIAL reports that overall safety perceptions have remained stable with only 5% of Australians feeling unsafe overall.
We still see only 1 in 5 Australians feeling very safe in their day-to-day lives, despite being acutely aware of situations and activities that could put them at risk.
Find the 2023 Australian Security Confidence Index (ASCI) here.
