Security fears for Aussie consumers

Peter Dinham
Wednesday, 06 May 2009 10:36

Business IT - Security

Australians, it seems, don’t have much faith in their security and the methods used to verify their identity.

An online survey of 203 Australians commissioned by Salmat VeCommerce, found increasing concerns amongst consumers about their security, and particular fears that traditional PINs and passwords don’t provide adequate protection of their personal information.

Of those surveyed by research company, callcentres.net, 67 per cent believed that their security details were at risk, with just over half (51 per cent) saying they felt that someone else may be able to accurately guess their password, PIN or security details for interactions over the phone.  And, 59 per cent said they believed someone else may actually know these details.

According to SalmatVeCommerce managing director, Paul Magee, extrapolation of the study to the wider Australian population, equates to about 44 million accounts held by Australians being regarded as currently vulnerable.

Magee said an increasing number of consumers in the Australian market believe that conventional forms of identity verification, such as PINs and passwords, were becoming more vulnerable to fraud, theft or misuse.

“These concerns are focused around the ease with which the personal information can be guessed, the possibility of information being stolen and the use of technology to hack information.”

Magee says that in the same study conducted in 2008, 15 per cent of Australian consumers considered the use of passwords in the identification process as ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ vulnerable, with this figure this year increasing to just over one in four consumers, or 27 per cent of those surveyed.
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