Consumers Feel Unaffected by Cyber Attacks on Banks

The impact distributed denial of service attacks on banks has had on consumers has been minimal, according to a consumer survey shared exclusively with American Banker on Monday.

Asked if they are aware of the recent cyber attacks on financial institutions (and having such attacks defined and explained to them), almost half of U.S. consumers (45%) said yes and 42% said no. But asked if they had been affected, 94% of those who were aware of the attacks said "no." So a very small segment of the population — less than 3% — say they have been directly affected by DDoS incidents. Of those who say they have been affected, 37% say they were unable to access account information and 33% say they couldn't access their bank's online services.

The survey of 2,419 consumers was conducted by research firm TNS Global in June (for its Retail Banking Monitor).

The majority of consumers surveyed (57%) do believe cyber-attacks put their money at risk, but less than a quarter say they would conduct less business online, visit a branch more often, or call their bank's call center more often because of that risk. On the other hand, they do agree that cyber-attacks will become more common (57%) and that it will be harder to conduct online transactions.

Consumers would like to be informed of cyber-attacks on their bank. Most (61%) would like to be notified by email and 14% would like to receive mobile alerts. Only 4% said they would like to be notified by social media.

The people TNS surveyed are not prone to lay blame on banks for the attacks. Asked if they think their bank or financial institution is at fault when cyber attacks occur, 67% said no. And asked if their bank was doing enough to prevent such attacks from occurring, 67% said yes.

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