Yes statistics. It is worth noting that opinion polls are based on sample size as small as 1000 persons…these usually have an error of about +/-2%. If they sampled more, the error would be less and the result would still he within the original +/- 2 percent band.
If they sampled 21500 over 20 countries, then it could be similar to an opinion poll which is often used as the media as an accurate measure for current political environment.
So, maybe the sample size is okay!
BUT, online surveys, unless done randomly and have a representive population sample (age, sex, socioeconomic background etc), are notorious for having potential for bias. This is due to those who may be interested in the topic of the survey only answering the call for its ompletion. For example, those who have been impacted by cybercrime may be more likely to complete a survey on cybercrime.
Also if a voluntary survey, interest groups have been known to circulate links to survey to its contacts/members which results in one group with a particular view increasing the weighting their the views in the final result. This occurs particularly if the survey is about an emotive or decisive issues.
If Norton/Symantec used independent survey company to run the survey, then one could argue that the results are valid.
Some of the results make sense like password compromises, as there have been alot of major companies who have had such information ‘stolen’. Sony, Yahoo etc come to mind and it is likely that 15% of the population (about 1 in 6) has an account with at least one of these compromised online accounts.
I also know of a few people that have been subject to credit cardit fraud, but it wouldn’t be about 1 in 5 each year…possibly 1 in 5 in total over all years. Maybe I circulate in more conservative groups which use credit cards inline less often?..or are less likely to admit to their friends that they have been targeted.
Maybe the 2017 Australian report eill be released this time next year. This (2016) one appears to have been released recently as there was a pop-up notification earlier today when using the desktop pc.