News19,135 Articles

October 29, 2009

Symantec reveals lack of confidence in online retailers

But Brits have faith in banks to keep data secure

Carrie-Ann Skinner

Brits have more confidence in the UK's banks over other retail sectors when it comes to looking after their sensitive personal data, says Symantec.

The security vendor surveyed UK consumers, asking them to rate how secure they thought their data was with businesses in a number of different retail sectors on a scale of one to six, with six being the lowest and one being the highest.

Banking came out top with a score of 3, while online retailers were bottom with a score of just 3.7.

Symantec also revealed that confidence in banking was highest among people under 30, with 72 percent of them awarding the sector a mark of 3 or above. The security firm also said Brits had more faith than Germans in the ability of banks to keep personal data secure.

The same research in Germany saw banks awarded a score of just 3.2, compared to online retailers that gained a score of 4.4.

"These results show a general concern about the safety of personal data held by private and public-sector organisations in the UK," said Chi-Chi Liang, senior product marketing manager for Data Loss Prevention at Symantec.

"The comparison with Germany merely underlines that businesses and public sector bodies in both countries have some way to go to convince the public that personal data is safe in their hands. The task for organisations in both countries is to win back customer confidence by reassuring them that world-class data loss prevention measures are in place."

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See also: Norton 360 beta 4 now available

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