Three times more Americans think they'll be hit by computer crime in the next year than real-world wrongdoing of the old-fashioned kind, a survey released Wednesday by IBM said.

The anticipation of cyber exploitation - everything from viruses to identity scams - is substantially higher than the actual results of the last 12 months, when six percent reported being victimized by cybercrime and seven percent said they'd been hit by a physical crime.

According to the poll of 700 U.S. adults, this angst is changing a host of online behaviors.

Seventy percent of those surveyed, for instance, said that they only shop at Internet sites that display a security protection seal or icon, while 64 percent claimed that they don’t conduct e-transactions on a shared computer.

Half said they don't use open public wireless networks, like those at coffee shops and airports, and 38 percent won't bank online.

In fact, the IBM survey noted that substantial numbers of Americans have gone even further in turning their backs on the online world because of security worries.

Twenty-seven percent said they've stopped buying goods online from unfamiliar e-retailers, 18 percent noted that they'd stopping paying bills online, and 16 percent - or one in six - said they've stopped playing online games because of crime anxiety.

People are taking drastic steps like these, said the survey, because a majority - 53 percent - hold themselves responsible for protecting themselves from cyber crime.

Source: InformationWeek