Seven out of 10 people are worried their financial details are vulnerable to cyber-criminals when it comes to online shopping, according to research from SafeNet, Inc., a specialist in information security. SafeNet surveyed 250 people in the UK , including accountants, management consultants, and marketing and HR executives about their security fears. Four out of five respondents admitted that lack of faith in Internet security has stopped them from shopping online in the past. One in three people said they had concerns about their financial details when banking online. Only one in five said they had never worried about their financial details on the Internet.
Additionally, the SafeNet survey revealed that 60 per cent of respondents said they worried about their details when making payments over the phone.
The majority of respondents - 75 per cent - answered that they would feel "more confident" if there was an industry enforced Internet security standard, which all retailers and financial institutions conformed to. Moreover, recent research from Javelin Strategy shows that retailers' reputations for safeguarding consumer information, such as credit card data, directly relates to consumers' willingness to shop with that organisation.
"We are seeing a lot of stories in the media about the vulnerability and compromise of the public's critical financial details," said Andy Solterbeck, Vice President of Product Management, Commercial Division, SafeNet. "Organisations that handle sensitive customer data have a responsibility to conform to the highest security standards in order to protect consumers from loss by cyber criminals."
Major credit card firms including Visa International and MasterCard Worldwide have joined forces to create the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCIDSS), to help facilitate the broad adoption of consistent data security measures on a global basis. This is a multifaceted security standard that includes requirements for security management, policies, procedures, network architecture, software design and other critical protective measures. This comprehensive standard is intended to help organisations proactively protect customer account data.
"As more organisations become PCI DSS compliant, we hope to see positive changes in customer data management as well as a drop in the number of data heists," said Solterbeck.
