Gallup has released its annual poll on the crimes Americans worry about the most. For the first time, being hacked was on the list. And hacking is definitely the Rookie of the Year, taking the top two slots by a wide margin.
Here are the results:
The reason for the rise of hackophobia is clear.
“A quarter of Americans, 27%, say they or another household member had information from a credit card used at a store stolen by computer hackers during the last year -- making this the most frequently experienced crime on a list of nine crimes,” according to Gallup. “Eleven percent say they or a household member have had their computer or smartphone hacked in the last year, also in the top half of crimes on the list.”
Many of these incidents are dealt with through credit companies and never reported to the police. And many other people know that a company they do business with has been hacked even, though they weren’t directly affected.
Concern over violent crimes has been stable for the past decade. Fear of terrorism, however, has dropped way down since around 2006.
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