Hacked...Off

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24 June 2016 | Updated 01 January 1970

A study has shown that consumers will take their business elsewhere if a firm has been hacked and that most think companies don't take enough responsibility for customers’ security.

The findings by Centrify, a specialist in securing enterprise identities against cyberthreats, noted that 75% of adults in the UK would stop doing business with or would cancel a membership to an organisation if it had been hacked although that indicated 25% would carry on using that company despite the security risks to both personal and financial information.

The study of 2,400 people across the UK, Germany and the USA examined consumer attitudes towards hacking and how likely consumers were to continue transacting with businesses, including retailers, banks, government, travel, health and hospitality organisations, after a cyber attack.
The majority of consumers expected to be hacked now to some degree with 73% in the UK admitting that it had become ‘normal or expected’ for businesses to be hacked. Despite this, only 50% felt that they were taking enough responsibility for the security of their customers’ or members’ personal information.

Most people believed that the burden of responsibility for security fell to the business. About two-thirds in each country rated organisations as a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale in terms of how responsible they should be for preventing hacks and securing the personal information of their customers.
Individuals most likely to take their business elsewhere following a data breach included those who had their personal information compromised in a hack previously, people who were ‘tech savvy’ and who shopped regularly online.
 

Best and worse

According to the survey, financial institutions have the best reputation when it comes to dealing with security breaches compared with other sectors.

They top the list of seven different industries in terms of how well they handle security issues for their customers, although government/local government and HMRC come in a respectable second. Of more concern was that retailers ranked fourth and travel sites fifth in each country, while membership and hospitality businesses were the lowest ranked.
The Centrify study also showed that organisations were increasingly going public with news of security attacks and data breaches, often notifying their customers directly. Around one-third in the UK have been notified of a hack. Of those notified of a hack, 45% of those in the UK found out that their personal information, such as an address or credit card information, had been compromised.
“When companies put customer data at risk they are really putting their entire business at risk,” stated Bill Mann, Chief Product Officer, Centrify. “People simply will not tolerate doing business with potentially risky organisations, so it’s time for them to take full responsibility for their security and put the proper measures in place once and for all. We would say that it is a very clear call to action to those businesses to sort out their processes and do everything they can to protect confidential customer information.”
Picture: Some sectors are doing better than others in protecting customers from hacking according to a study by Centrifly
 

Article written by Mike Gannon | Published 24 June 2016

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