Secure Your Business. Try Electric For Free.

Learn more

First Spy Balloons, Now TikTok: America Is on Edge

Blog PostsSecurityCybersecurity

First Spy Balloons, Now TikTok: America Is on Edge

Read Time: 3 minutes Published: February 24, 2023

How secure is our nation?

With financial fraud, threats to the energy grid and even mysterious flying objects all looming over the U.S. (both literally and figuratively), Americans are rightfully concerned about their safety. Are we being spied on? And if so, how else is our security at risk?

To dig deeper, we surveyed more than 1,000 of them about their fears, what they think should be done to alleviate them, and what they make of the recent unidentified aerial phenomena.

Americans' cybersecurity fears

Time To Ban TikTok?

  • 63% of Americans believe TikTok is collecting personal information for nefarious purposes. 
  • 42% of Americans believe the government should ban TikTok, including 19% of TikTok  users and 56% of non-users.
  • 50% of baby boomers believe TikTok should be banned, as do 44% of Gen X, 40% of millennials, and 38% of Gen Z.
  • 51% of men believe TikTok should be banned, compared to just 35% of women. 

Questioning Our Cybersecurity

  • 70% of Americans are concerned about the nation’s cybersecurity, and 59% are concerned with their personal cybersecurity.
  • 49% of Americans believe the nation’s cybersecurity is weak, and 31% believe their personal cybersecurity is weak.
  • Over 1 in 5 Americans are not concerned about their personal cybersecurity.
  • Gen Z is the least concerned about the nation’s cybersecurity (62%), while baby boomers are the most concerned (82%).
  • 35% of Americans would be willing to pay more taxes to increase the government’s cybersecurity efforts.

Number of Americans that fear flying objects

What’s that in the sky?

  • 97% of Americans are aware of the large balloon and other unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) that the U.S. government recently shot down over the U.S.
  • 54% of Americans are concerned about the number of objects that have been recently shot down over the U.S.
  • 65% of Republicans and 50% of Democrats are concerned about the number of UAPs being shot down recently. 
  • Americans’ hypotheses for where these UAPs came from include the U.S. government and private entities.
  • Some Americans felt the balloon was sent as a distraction, an alien probe, or to create panic, among other guesses. 

Methodology 

Electric surveyed 1,004 Americans about their personal cybersecurity and the nation’s cybersecurity. Of them, 10% were baby boomers, 23% were Gen X, 56% were millennials, and 11% were Gen Z. As for political affiliations, 48% were Democrats, 20% were Republicans, 22% were Independents, and the rest identified as something else. Half of respondents were female, 48% were male, and 2% were nonbinary.

About Electric

With cybersecurity risks at an all-time high, you can rely on Electric’s cutting-edge IT expertise to keep your business running smoothly and securely.

Fair Use Statement

Learn something interesting from our study? You’re welcome to share our findings for any non-commercial purpose, so long as you link back to our research when you do.

The Electric Team provides real-time IT support to 25,000 users and centralized IT management to over 400 customers.

Contact Us

Learn how Electric can help you with IT management, employee onboarding/offboarding, security, and more!

Contact Us