Statistical Database Search

I used the opportunity to search a stats database to show how important and valuable good cybersecurity policy is by searching for information on how many people are affected by poor security online. I searched the Pew Research Institute for the term “identity theft”.  I was able to find a study on the number of people who experienced identity theft and information about the types of internet users who are most likely to have “negative” experience online related to privacy and their reputation.

What I Learned

I learned that 1 in 5 internet users experiences some form of identity theft, with internet users from lower income brackets experiencing the most negative attacks on their personal information and online reputation.

I did not really learn anything about searching from this particular database because the search was so limited and simple, but I do recommend reading through all your results (or at least the first page worth of results) when searching on this website. Sometimes the titles of documents can be a bit unimpressive but the summary will show that they are deeply relevant to your topic.

Reflection

The Pew Research Institute was a great choice for this search and I think it would be very useful to other people looking for statistical information, primarily because the results were so easy to read and understand. With statistics and numerical information, I always find myself getting in over my head – having to reread information in order to understand the sometimes higher level statistical information I have found. However, the Pew reports were easy to understand with clearly labeled illustrations and helpful bullet points that made the information digestible.