The public are about to get a rude awakening when data breaches reported under GDPR become public as 70 percent of people say that they would stop doing business with companies following a data breach, yet it is clear within the industry that there is currently huge under-reporting of breaches.
Perhaps more realistically, just a quarter (27 percent) of respondents globally to the Gemalto survey feel businesses take security very seriously. Yet even when companies do offer greater security measures, such as two factor authentication, sixty percent of consumers do not use them.
Specifically for the UK, the figures were slightly lower with 63 percent of UK consumers who would stop doing business with a company where financial and sensitive information was stolen. Whereas the figure was also lower, at 20 percent, for the number of consumers who believed companies took protection and security of customer data seriously.
The survey also found that 63 of UK consumers saw businesses as responsible for data security, with 48 percent not using two-factor authentication for any social media accounts.
Perhaps one of the reasons why the UK is such a magnet for cyber-crime is that 14 percent of UK consumers - some 9 million if all men, women and children are included - don't believe there are any apps or websites that pose a great risk – the second highest globally. A likely reason for this complacency is that
only four percent of UK consumers believe that they have been a victim of identity theft in the last 12 months. Just 10 percent believe they would be likely to be a victim in the last 12 months – which is half the global average of 20 percent. Yet a factor which could make them more likely to be targeted is that 71 percent of those breached have not and won't take legal action.
UK consumers trust banks the most (49 percent) to keep their data safe, way ahead of the second highest, industry certified bodies (nine percent). They don't appreciate that phishing and their own failings are the likely biggest cause of falling victim, instead viewing failure of an organisation's security solutions (38 percent) and visiting a fraudulent website (38 percent) as the top reasons UK consumers believe they would be victims of a breach
Joe Pindar, director of product strategy at Gemalto commented in an email to SC Media UK: “Major breaches, such as Equifax and Uber, this year have heightened the tensions between UK consumers and businesses over their protection of personal data. Yet, whilst there is increasing pressure on organisations to do much more, it's clear that UK consumers are shirking their responsibility to keep themselves safe from cyber criminals by failing to implement simple and available security measures such as two-factor authentication. Unfortunately however, organisations live and die by their customers trust and loyalty, and with the inevitability of a hacker breaching defences, it's ultimately their responsibility to keep this data secure – especially in the wake of GDPR. ”
