Consumers are worried about cyber risk
Europ Assistance recently carried out its first global consumer survey, conducted by Lexis across nine countries and including responses from 7,200 US and European customers. The Cyber Barometer survey found that 46 per cent of consumers have major concerns about the potential risk of cybercrime, rising to 49 per cent for respondents with elderly parents and 54 per cent for those who have children.
Thirty-one per cent of consumers said that they felt ‘exposed’ to cybersecurity risks, rising to 38 per cent when it came to concerns surrounding their children’s identity. Southern Europe saw the highest levels of worry, with Spain and Italy coming top, with 47 per cent and 39 per cent respectively expressing concern about this area. Twenty-six per cent of respondents to the survey said that they knew somebody who had suffered an attack on their personal data, while 82 per cent described the potential of such an attack as a ‘very stressful’ proposition and listed it as a higher concern than a car accident.
Unfortunately, despite high levels of anxiety surrounding cybercrime, this concern does not necessarily translate into a focus on protection. Less than one-third of respondents to Europ Assistance’s survey said that they frequently changed their passwords and other digital credentials, and only half said that they had anti-virus and anti-malware software on their tablets and smartphones. Forty-five per cent, meanwhile, said that they would not know how to rectify the situation if their personal data was compromised, and 48 per cent accused companies and institutions of not doing enough to protect customer information.
The survey did uncover some positives, luckily, in that awareness of these issues and a willingness to purchase solutions are increasing, even if the willingness is not leading to concrete action as frequently as might be desired. Sixty-five per cent of Americans were aware of identity protection solutions, compared to 40 per cent of Europeans, but 55 per cent of overall respondents said that they had a favourable view of cyber and digital protection services, rising to 61 per cent for respondents with children and 57 per cent for those with elderly parents.
“Consumers are now more aware of threats to their personal information,” said Antoine Parisi, CEO of Europ Assistance, “and while the mounting concerns they have are valid, it is our mission to protect people from any stressful situation. With digital services playing such a key role in our daily lives, we have developed a unique service to protect the identities and personal data of our customers from any type of cybercrime.”