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[ news_security_news ]Consumers Want Online Security
John Stith Staff Writer 2005-11-14  Security News RSS Feed
A new study by Unisys says consumers will pay for improved security for protection against identity fraud. Identity fraud is perhaps the greatest single threat to commerce on the Internet and realistically, to consumer banking in general. The research shows a strong increase to 40% of Americans are at least somewhat willing to pay fees for more protection compared to the 27% a year ago. Even a larger number, 50%, would consider switching banks for more protection compared to the 40% over last year. "Our research shows U.S. banks lead in some areas of consumer education on ID fraud as compared to their worldwide counterparts but clearly there's still a long way to go to make Americans feel secure about their banks' business operations," said Dominick Cavuoto, corporate vice president and president of the Global Financial Services Practice at Unisys. "People are clearly worried, reinforced by the fact that they're even more willing than ever to leave their banks and pay for security protection. This consumer perception will likely drive banks to quickly adopt advanced security solutions or risk losing existing and potential consumers, revenue streams and brand reputation." Almost 73% of consumers worry about ID fraud for their bank accounts and credit cards, but Unisys said only 51% expressed at least some concern about the bank account safety. "With all the attention to ID fraud in the media and in the government, Americans are learning more which is a positive step to combat the problem, especially if financial institutions also encourage and capitalize on this knowledge effectively," Cavuoto said. "Banks need visibility into all fraud across their own operations and beyond, sharing data industry-wide to better deter fraud earlier." Some facts Unisys learned: The worldwide Unisys research also examined consumer views in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Australia and Hong Kong. Other key U.S. findings include: -- The U.S. leads the world in ID fraud instances with 17 percent of consumers citing they have been victims, followed by the U.K. (11 percent), Brazil (9 percent), Mexico (8 percent), France (8 percent), Australia (7 percent), Germany (3 percent) and Hong Kong (1 percent). -- The aggravation of dealing with the fraud virtually equals loss of money as leading concern associated with ID fraud. A surprising 25 percent of Americans say the time and effort to fix the problem is their top concern compared to 26 percent who cite loss of their funds. The United States leads the rest of the world in concern about aggravation over rectifying identity fraud cases, likely influenced by personal experience due to higher victim rates. -- Two in five (42 percent) Americans report receiving information from their banks about "phishing" (email fraud attacks that mimic bank sites), with U.S. banks significantly better at communicating with customers than their counterparts in other countries. At the same time, 50 percent of U.S. consumers say they would like to receive more information from their financial institution about security and fraud protection. -- Biometrics (e.g., iris or fingerprint scans) is the preferred method to fight fraud and identity theft, cited by 64 percent of U.S. consumers, followed by smart cards (36 percent), tokens (23 percent), and more passwords (17 percent). "To better deter fraud, banks need more visibility across their risk monitoring applications to develop a common framework through which multiple business units and detection systems can collaborate and coordinate their activities," Cavuoto said. "Banks have great resources at their fingertips to fight ID fraud, but the trick is to unify the power of many separate tools that they use today." The problem is even though more consumers may be willing to pay for additional security, honestly, that's not good enough. Consumers need to know their banks can remain secure. Right now, the most common form of security for online banking is a single password. Most experts say a password and some other type of security, such as biometric, should be the standard. As society moves further and further into the electronic age, eventually, just about all transactions will be through one electronic medium or another. All banking consumers should have a least rudimentary protection and that means more than just a password. About the Author: John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security. More news_security_news Articles Security News RSS Feed
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