The awareness and victimization of cybercrime amongst SME’s in Twente

It is impossible to imagine your life without computers or smartphones anymore. Everything today happens digitally, and Web 2.0 is currently taking place. Even though being online all the time has countless advantages, it also opens up a world of online criminality, which can be called cybercrime. This study focuses on the awareness and victimization of cybercrime amongst small to medium sized enterprises (SME’s) in Twente. The study was conducted in Enschede and involved 54 SME’s, whom filled out an online questionnaire about the awareness of cybercrime within their business and about their experience with cybercrime. It was found that many of the businesses are not aware of the potential risks they could encounter and only a few would take further actions if they were involved in cybercrime. However, businesses are more likely to take action, if financial damage is involved.