Survey Finds Identity Theft Negatively Impacting Consumer Use of the Internet

Entrust Commissioned Survey Finds that Organizations That Take Steps to Protect Consumer Identity are More Likely to Attract New Customers and Online Users of Services

The Entrust commissioned poll run by Greenfield Online between August 16 and 20, 2004, questioned over 2,000 Internet users regarding their perception of online security issues and approaches. As industry concerns over identity theft and phishing attacks increase, it was found that consumer use of the Internet and online banking services have been negatively impacted. Key findings of the survey among existing Internet users include:

• 80 percent of users are concerned about someone stealing their on-line identity;
• 85 percent of users participate in some form of e-commerce; but only
• 59 percent of Internet users currently bank online.

Most compelling to online service providers is evidence that those who take steps to protect their users’ online identity would likely experience increased adoption and be able to deliver additional higher value services for increased business opportunities. Results from the survey showed that:

• 72 percent of users who do not currently bank online would be likely to participate if identity security was improved; and
• 90 percent of those who already bank online would likely take advantage of additional, higher value services if their identities were better protected.

Organizations that take steps to increase security of online identities are viewed by consumers as having a competitive advantage. For example, survey results showed that:

• 65 percent of users stated that increased security of their online identities would influence their decision when selecting which financial institutions to do business with; and in fact
• 22 percent would be ‘very likely’ to switch banks to obtain better protection of their online identity.

How to realize these advantages without incurring significant cost or risking user acceptance is of paramount concern to those conducting e-commerce. Of comfort to these organizations is that survey results indicate users would be willing to change the way they access on-line services if it improves the security of their identity. Specifically, stronger identity protection based on second-factor authentication methods, including leveraging a physical form of identification in addition to their password, would be accepted. The survey results showed:

• 78 percent of Internet users would be willing to use a second factor of authentication to access their online accounts in order to improve the security of their identity.

“As demonstrated by the Entrust Internet Security Survey, the proliferation of online hazards such as ID theft and phishing scams is threatening the growth in e-commerce and Internet use that we have experienced over the past decade. Corporations and other organizations that offer online services to consumers are at risk of experiencing financial and reputation losses unless they act quickly to protect customers’ identity,” said Bill Conner, chairman and CEO of Entrust, Inc. “By offering protection against online identity theft, organizations can help counter this threat and, as shown by these survey results, help create opportunities to deliver new services to new users. It’s good security practice and it’s good business.”

“The results from this survey highlight the importance of taking action to safeguard data, and therefore clients, customers and consumers from identity theft,” said Zachary Tumin, Executive Director, FSTC. “It is also very encouraging to see that consumers are becoming better educated on phishing and identity theft in general, and that many would actively seek out alternate financial services providers if another organization could offer them better protection.”

On November 4th,2004 at 11:00am ET, Entrust will also host a Web seminar to discuss the survey findings in more detail and will discuss alternative approaches to protecting on-line identity. To register, visit our website at http://www.entrust.com/events/identityguard.htm

Report Methodology
The Entrust Internet Security Survey is based on on-line data collected by Greenfield Online between August 16 and 20, 2004. A representative sample of 10,000 respondents was taken from Greenfield Online's panel of 3+ million consumers. With a 20% response rate, 2000 completed surveys made up the results from consumers in the United States, Canada, Germany and the U.K; however, the overwhelming sample size was from within North America. The respondents profile was representative of the general population with equal split on gender and age groups between 18 and 65+. While the data collection was conducted on behalf of Entrust Inc, at no time were the survey respondents aware of our participation. The confidence interval of data collected is + or - 2.2%.

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