April 1 2021: India is known for its IT talent exports and for being the IT support hub for most of the global corporations. Yet, new research by NordVPN shows that Indians are falling behind when it comes to cybersecurity, maintaining below-the-average knowledge of how to protect their everyday lives online.
The country landed 19th out of 21 countries in the National Privacy Test, scoring 51.2 points out of 100 (14.0 points below the global average).
48,063 respondents around the world took NordVPN’s National Privacy Test to learn their personal performance in cybersecurity. It turns out Germans have the best knowledge and skills. They got 71.2 points out of 100.
NordVPN  drilled down into what has led to India’s poor performance and found that Indians are the most reckless when it comes to online bargains and social media. A staggering 51.8% of respondents said they would buy a Netflix or Spotify account if they found it offered on eBay at a lower price than the official one. Globally, only 11.2% admitted they would do such a thing.
“Obviously, people simply don’t know that streaming service accounts sold on eBay at a better price are almost always stolen. This means that people lack the understanding of how those accounts end up stolen in the first place. Anyone who’s accidentally installed malware on their device can end up robbed of their credentials,” says the digital privacy expert at NordVPN.
 28.6% of Indians admitted they would engage in a conversation or give in to the demands of bad actors claiming they got their device infected with malware. Globally, only 4.5% of people would fall for that type of scam.Additionally, 65.1% said they provide and make public all personal details that social media platforms ask of them, including their email address, telephone number, full names, or even their current location. Globally, only 18.7% admitted to behaving the same way.
As a result, the digital habits of Indians got 37.0 points out of 100. Their theoretical knowledge of cybersecurity scored 57.6 points out of 100, and the awareness of what to do when facing obvious threats, like a service provider breach that exposed personal
Nine out of the top 10 countries by digital privacy awareness are European, with Germans (71.2/100) being the first on the list, the Dutch second (overall score of 69.5 points out of 100), and Switzerland third (68.9 points out of 100). These findings only prove Cousera’s conclusions, which list European technology skills as cutting-edge.The United States, the cradle of BigTech companies dominating the industry of the internet, came 4th in the list, with an overall score of 68.5 out of 100.The world has passed the test of online privacy awareness with results that are fairly satisfactory. The global score of 48,063 respondents from 192 countries in the National Privacy Test is 65.2/100.
Eye-opening surprises
Surprisingly, two other countries besides India known for their tech advancement, Russia and Japan, haven’t made it even to the top 15, with their habits being the main reason that drags them down.
“People choose convenience and do not pay attention to what they are being asked when accepting the terms of privacy and giving permissions to apps. Besides, people want to tell compelling stories on social media but forget about oversharing,” says the digital privacy expert at NordVPN.
The digital privacy expert adds: “To be truly private online, one must not only know how to react to threats but also how to prevent them in the first place. Clearing the browsing history will not make you more private, as  half of the world thinks. But good habits and comprehensive cybersecurity tools like VPN and an antivirus will.