The total cost of dealing with cybercrime just in the last 12 months was a whopping $110 billion, with about 556 online adults experiencing some form of cybercrime or another. To put things into perspective, that’s more than the entire population of the European Union. The percentage of all online adults? 46 percent. On average, that’s about $197 spent per person, or roughly more than Php8,000 that would have been better off being spent elsewhere. These are just some of the things I learned at the 2012 Norton Cybercrime Report when I represented Noypigeeks to attend the event.

The sad thing is that despite the better awareness of the need to protect one’s self and computing device, especially when going online, few realize just how much cybercrime has evolved and how little we are actually doing to safeguard our PCs, Macs, smartphones, tablets, and other mobile smart devices. While there used to be telltale signs that your system had been infected, such as the dreaded BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) and random crashes, cybercriminals these days have shifted gears and are aiming to stay as undetected as long as possible. Want to know how to protect yourself? Check out my latest post, Norton Cybercrime Report 2012, Aims to Tighten Online Security at NoypiGeeks.