Study Reveals Data and Identity Thefts Top Consumer Security Worries

A study released today by Trend Micro, Incorporated reveals the extent to which consumers in the United States fear identity and data theft. In particular, the findings highlighted that the majority of respondents do bank and shop online and many store sensitive, personal or financial data on their laptops, however almost one third of respondents admitted to not securing their laptops against theft.

With the busy lives that people nowadays live, many carry laptops and other electronic devices with them, and so new risks and concerns beyond traditional security threats such as car theft and burglary, have emerged. According to the study by Trend Micro, over a third of respondents are very worried about data theft (32 percent) and identify theft (33 percent) in the cyberspace, while only 14 percent of participating consumers indicated that they are very worried about car theft.

The study also showed that 82 percent of respondents regularly make purchases online with a credit/debit card, while 71 percent bank online. This trend is a clear indication of an "on-the-go," ever busy lifestyle, where technology plays a major role. Worryingly, around a third of respondents (31 percent) admitted to not protecting their laptops while almost 60 percent of participating consumers admitted to storing sensitive or confidential information on them.

Key findings include:

• Consumers are slightly more likely to leave sensitive or confidential information on their laptops (58%) than in their cars (55%).
• 58% of consumers store sensitive or confidential information on their laptops.
  Among them:
  • 84% store contact information (names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.) on their laptops
  • 69% store personal digital content (photos, videos, music, games, etc.) on their laptops
  • 63% store bank/credit card information on their laptops
• Of those surveyed, 31% of consumers do not have their laptops protected. Among those consumers who store sensitive information on their laptops, a quarter of them do not take any measures to secure their laptops.
• 82% of consumers reported that they regularly make purchases online using bank cards.
• 71% of them reported that they conduct online banking regularly.
• Close to half of the consumers would purchase security software if it enabled them to remotely lock down their laptops in the event that they are stolen.
• Only about a quarter of the consumers believe that their current security software on the laptop will adequately protect their sensitive information from being used if their laptops were stolen.