People Don't Trust the Government to Keep their ID Safe

Bank Technology News | October, 2009

For all the talk about data security regulations and tech deployments to protect personal data, new research from Unisys suggests the message isn't getting across to consumers.

The firm found that only 22 percent of Americans fully trust government agencies to keep personal information secure and private. Banks aren't faring much better, coming in at 29 percent.

The Unisys Security Index found that about two-thirds of Americans are either "extremely" or "very" concerned about ID theft and credit and debit card theft. And Americans who are seriously concerned about the security of their online transactions rose to 42 percent, the highest level since Unisys began the index two years ago.

While banks are spending billions of dollars on security measures, the survey suggests a perception problem: Consumers still don't feel totally safe online.

Sidney Pearl, director of solutions risk intelligence for Unisys, says the results should force banks to deploy and draw more attemtion to stronger protections such as dual and multi-factor authentication, securing transactions and the data itself.

"It's about protecting the end-to-end transaction, and figuring out what kinds of controls you need to have in place to secure that transaction," Pearl says. "And data needs to be encrypted both at rest and in motion. Each point in the transaction needs some sort of control. But the challenge is when you're communicating these kinds of strategies to the world. All of the bad guys get a chance to know what you're doing."