News

FIs get top rating from US consumers for personal info security

October 22, 2018

First Data has released the results of its 2018 Consumer Cybersecurity Study exploring the perceptions about consumers regarding the security of their personally identifiable information.

The study polled 1,767 U.S. adults in four unique age groups: linksters (age 18-23); socializers (24-34); the MTV generation (35-54); and maturists (55-plus).

The majority of consumers believe that fraud is inevitable within any industry. However, all generations tend to put more trust in regulated, records-driven businesses.

Most trusted business were financial services (46 percent), healthcare (39 percent), and insurance (30 percent) companies; least trusted groups were retail (8 percent), foodservice (8 percent) and petroleum (4 percent) businesses.

Consumers also reported which industries they felt were best prepared to respond to a data breach. Financial institutions (50 percent); government (41 percent); and healthcare (30 percent) were judged most prepared. Perceived to be least prepared were petroleum (6 percent), food service (6 percent) and retail (11 percent).

Among individuals who have performed a dark web scan, more than half in each generation said that at least some of their information appeared on the dark web.

• 26 percent of consumers reported their personally identifiable information had been compromised within the last month.
• 34 percent said it had been compromised within the last year.

Still, many assume that their personal information is safe unless they are notified of a breach. Additional findings:

• Most consumers worried about having their Social Security number stolen in a breach (64 percent), followed by account information (41 percent) and login passwords (34 percent)
• 45 percent expect a retailer, provider or financial institution to notify them within one hour of discovering a breach.
• 11 percent said they would stop shopping at a retailer who experienced a breach; 43 percent said they would still shop at an affected retailer, but would use cash.
• Despite a rapid increase in their use, consumers are skeptical about mobile payment platforms and their ability to safeguard their information.