Shoppers in the UK are happy to buy goods and services online, but are still
unsure of who has responsibility for security, a new survey has found.
A poll by shopping portal
MutualPoints
questioned 3,500 people in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Cardiff and
Edinburgh, and found that over three quarters felt safe handing over their
credit card details online.
Shoppers in the north were most confident of making web purchases. Some 84
per cent of people in Edinburgh and 82 per cent in Leeds were 'very happy',
compared with 73 per cent in Birmingham and London.
However, shoppers are unsure where the responsibility for security lies. Only
a third felt that their ISP provided all the protection they need, while 75 per
cent felt that the internet security industry does not do enough to educate
users about how to protect their computers from potential threats.
Confidence is lowest in Edinburgh, where only 22.3 per cent believe that the
industry is doing enough. Residents of Birmingham are the most happy to place
their trust in security companies, where 25.4 per cent expressed confidence in
security firms.
"Online threats are constantly evolving, and keeping up to date and protected
is a challenge for many users," said Stephan Tate, European marketing director
at MutualPoints.
"The security industry needs to find a way of demystifying online protection
so that it is accessible to everyone."
The vast majority of users take steps to protect themselves from online
fraud, the survey found.
Around 85 per cent regularly download security updates to defend against the
latest viruses and scams.
When asked whether they had been hit by a virus, spyware or phishing scam in
the past six months, just a third of the people surveyed said they had
experienced one or more of these, with 6.7 per cent losing files as a result.
Consumer awareness about phishing attempts is high, although 3.9 per cent of
online shoppers had lost money after falling for one of these scams.
A small number of people questioned (8.4 per cent) had replaced hardware
following a security threat.
Although the overwhelming majority (94 per cent) felt that it is important to
have security software installed, half of all respondents claimed that they are
not concerned by internet security in general.
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