|
US-USA-CYBER-POLL
Illustration file picture shows a man typing on a computer
keyboard in Warsaw
A man types on a computer keyboard in Warsaw in this February
28, 2013 illustration file picture. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Files
Dimensions728 x 476
Size60KB
CreditReuters
Create New Collection
Item DetailsDownload
The March 11-20 opinion survey showed that a sizable minority of
Americans made personal changes to how they interact online
following the hacking of emails during the 2016 U.S.
presidential campaign, which were later published by WikiLeaks
and other entities.
Among respondents, 45 percent said they had changed their online
passwords since the hacks.
U.S. intelligence agencies believe Russia orchestrated the
disclosure of the emails to embarrass the campaign of Democratic
presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and help Republican Donald
Trump win. The emails also led to the ouster of Democratic
National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Moscow
denies the allegations.
Concerns about online security crossed party lines, with 43
percent of Democrats and 40 percent of Republicans saying they
had been more cautious about personal email since the election
hacking.
"It makes you start to wonder how secure anything is as far as
your own privacy," said Delene Rutledge, 67, a retired teacher
in Indiana who participated in the poll. "And yet I'm not the
greatest at coming up with great passwords - I'm not sure it
would make any difference."
Despite concerns about digital privacy, only a small percentage
of Americans said they had started protecting themselves online
in other ways within the past month.
Five percent of adults said they had begun using secure
messaging services like Signal, WhatsApp or Wickr.
Some 16 percent said they had placed tape over the camera in
their computers to block any unwanted spying, a tactic advocated
by Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and FBI Director
James Comey.
Twenty-one percent said they had switched off the tracking
capabilities of their internet browsers, while 17 percent
changed their user ID on social media networks like Facebook or
Twitter and 10 percent unplugged smart TVs or other
internet-connected devices when not using them.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English in all 50
states. It included 3,307 American adults and had a credibility
interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2 percentage points.
The entire poll can be found here. [http://tmsnrt.rs/2mWiLZm]
(Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Peter Cooney)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
|
