A Study on assessing the Awareness of Cybersecurity among youth in Delhi NCR

In today's digital age, cybersecurity has become a major issue that affects people all around theworld. With the rapid expansion of internet connectivity, smartphones, online banking, socialmedia platforms, and digital learning systems, young people are increasingly dependent on digitaltechnologies for education, communication, entertainment, and financial transactions. While thisdigital transformation offers numerous opportunities, it also exposes users—especially youth—tovarious cyber threats such as phishing, identity theft, hacking, cyberbullying, online fraud, anddata breaches.India has witnessed significant growth in internet usage over the past decade, particularly in urbanregions like Delhi NCR, which includes Delhi and its surrounding areas. As one of the mostdigitally connected regions in the country, Delhi NCR has a high concentration of students,educational institutions, and working youth who actively engage in online platforms. However,the increasing rate of cybercrimes reported in metropolitan areas highlights the urgent need toassess the level of cybersecurity awareness among young users.Youth, typically defined as individuals between the ages of 15 and 29, represent one of the mostactive segments of internet users. Despite being technologically adept, many young individualslack adequate knowledge about safe online practices, privacy protection, strong passwordmanagement, secure digital payments, and reporting mechanisms for cybercrimes. This gapbetween digital usage and cybersecurity awareness makes them vulnerable to online exploitationand cyber threats.The present study aims to examine the level of awareness of cybersecurity among youth in DelhiNCR. It seeks to understand their knowledge of cyber threats, preventive measures, digitalbehavior patterns, and familiarity with cybersecurity policies and reporting systems. By assessingawareness levels, the study intends to identify gaps in knowledge and suggest measures forimproving cyber safety education and digital literacy among young individuals.Understanding cybersecurity awareness among youth is essential not only for individual safety butalso for building a secure digital society. As India moves toward greater digitalization, empoweringyoung users with proper cybersecurity knowledge becomes a vital step in ensuring responsible andsafe participation in the digital world.