LAS VEGAS - The growing number of cyber crimes is not hard to compute. Elisabeth Daniels with Nevada's Fight Fraud Task Force says criminals don't have to be programmers to capitalize on how people connect.
"Credit card fraud and piracy, malware that is installed on your system and can be used for identity theft," she said. "When we deal with unemployment and accessibility of computers and other countries in the world, then you might see people taking up this type of activity."
A new study by Norton and Sperling's BestPlaces ranked the 50 riskiest online cities in the U.S. Las Vegas, which used to be in the top 10, ranks 11th.
"Certainly, we would want to be much lower on the scale than that, but I think it suggests that we're going in the right direction," Daniels said.
The report says we are more connected than ever, and that makes being victimized easier. The study analyzed consumer behavior, e-commerce, social networking and the prevalence of personal computers and smart phones.
Rob Tyree with Fiberhub, a managed IT company, is on the front lines when it comes to protecting against cyber crimes and disasters.
"Protecting yourself from cyber crime is really mostly about common sense," he said.
An obvious defense is to create unique and complex passwords. Tyree also says it's best to avoid public Wi-Fi hot spots.
"I would not recommend accessing any secure websites like your bank or anything like that," he said. "If it's something that doesn't seem like it'd be safe, don't do it."
Even as cyber crimes grow, the state's Fight Fraud Task Force says investigators are becoming more sophisticated at tracking down criminals.
