PUNE: New research from cyber security firm Kaspersky Labs reveals that over half the victims of financial cyber crime struggle to recover the lost money The study showed that 52 per cent of internet users who have lost their money to cyber criminals have got only some, or none, of their stolen funds back.On average, Internet users lose $476 per attack and one-in-ten people surveyed said they lost more than $5,000.With the variety and sophistication of online financial threats against consumers growing, losses from online fraud, identity theft and hacking are now running at billions a year.Further, with many cases going unreported, the actual economic cost is likely to be significantly higher.“Cyber criminals are continually looking for new ways to exploit and defraud consumers and that’s why it’s important for Internet users to be on their guard at all times,” said Vyacheslav Zakorzhevsky, Head of the Anti-Malware Research Team at Kaspersky Lab “Cybercriminals can conduct financial crimes via malware, phishing and more. Don’t assume you will always get all your money back if you become a target and funds are stolen from you. The best way to safeguard your finances online is to make sure you don’t become a victim, and for that we recommend specialist software that protects your identity and keeps sensitive data out of the hands of the cybercriminals.”A large majority (81 per cent) of Internet users say they conduct financial operations online and just under half (44 per cent) store financial data on their connected devices.As more users go online to manage their finances, more cyber criminals are looking for opportunities to cash in, making it important for users to have robust Internet security in place to protect themselves and their money. However, only 60 per cent of Internet users protect all their devices.Attitudes to online safety could be influenced by users mistakenly thinking lost money will be automatically refunded to them.Almost half (45 per cent) say that they assume they will be reimbursed by banks for financial cybercrime without any problems, but as the survey shows, over half (52 per cent) of people affected haven’t had all their stolen money returned.