By Martin H. Bosworth
ConsumerAffairs.com
May 24, 2006
Not too long ago, Americans were up in arms about street crime. Now they're irate that Congress isn't doing more to keep them safe online, according to a survey conducted by the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA).
The survey found that consumers' increased wariness is costing online businesses billions of dollars in lost revenue.
Fifty percent of the individuals polled were concerned about their financial information being safe online, and 24 percent performed fewer transactions online as a result.
Ninety-five percent of the respondents felt that identity theft was a prime concern, and fewer than 19 percent felt that existing privacy and data security legislation was sufficient to protect consumers from online fraud.
Of the approximately 200 million adults in the United States, 158 million use the Internet on a daily basis for business and commerce.
Consumer reticence about shopping online costs businesses $3.8 billion a year in lost transactions, according to the CSIA.
"If Americans are not given assurances about the security of the networks that connect us, many will not participate just like the 24 percent of Internet users who do not make purchases on the Internet despite all the potential conveniences," the survey authors wrote.
"Those 38 million people represent the economic potential that will not be realized unless government and industry works together to make our networks safer."
The CSIA, a trade group of networking and security firms that includes such big names as Symantec, McAfee, and Citrix, conducted the survey in conjunction with Pineda Consulting, a strategic research firm based out of Pasadena, CA. The survey polled 1,150 random individuals via telephone.
CSIA members RSA Security and Entrust, as well as research firm ComScore Networks, recently conducted other polls that also indicated consumers are less willing to perform major financial transactions online, and that they were willing to utilize extra security measures if their banks provided them.
This being an election year, both government agencies and Congress say they are -- or will soon be -- taking steps to more aggressively protect Americans from online fraud and identity theft.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) member Jon Leibowitz recently testified before Congress that banks and other businesses need to do more in order to prevent the theft and misuse of Americans' Social Security Numbers (SSNs) online.
However, Leibowitz emphasized the "inconvenience" restricting SSNs would cause the credit industry, which relies on the number to identify individuals when verifiying their identities for credit transactions. SSN-only identity theft is often the most difficult form of data fraud to track, as it does not show up on credit reports, and consumers are often deliberately not informed if someone else opens new credit using their SSN.
The CSIA report also comes at a time when multiple instances of "laptop theft" -- when a laptop computer containing individuals' personal information is stolen or lost -- has put identity theft concerns back in the public eye.
The recent theft of a Veterans Administration laptop containing data on 26.5 million veterans is a reminder that increased online security doesn't protect individuals if their data is physically lost or stolen.
It's also a reminder that government is often the problem, not the solution.
