Companies will lose business due to data breach: Gemalto

Around 70 percent of consumers would stop doing business with a company if it experienced a data breach, according to a worldwide survey conducted on behalf of Gemalto, a digital security provider.

In addition, six in ten Indian consumers (59 percent) feel businesses don't take the security of customer data very seriously.

Despite these concerns, the study found that consumers are failing to adequately secure themselves, with over half of the Indian respondents (51 percent) still using the same password for multiple online accounts. Even when businesses offer robust security solutions, such as two-factor authentication, 28 percent of consumers admit to not using the technology to secure social media accounts, leaving them vulnerable to data breaches.

 

This may be because the majority of consumers (66 percent) believe the business holding their data is mostly responsible for its security. As per Indian respondents, they have poor security hygiene and fail to take advantage of security measures available to them such as two-factor authentication (28 percent) for social media accounts. This is resulting in businesses being forced to take additional steps to protect consumers and enforce robust security measures, as well as educate them on the benefits of adopting these.

"Consumers are evidently happy to relinquish the responsibility of protecting their data to a business, but are expecting it to be kept secure without any effort on their part. In the face of brewing conversations around data protection and privacy law, it's now up to businesses to ensure they are forcing security protocols on their customers to keep data secure. Protocols must be mandatory from the start - otherwise businesses will face not only financial consequences, but also potentially legal action from consumers," said Jason Hart, CTO, Identity and Data Protection at Gemalto.

Despite their behaviour, consumers' security concerns are high, as two thirds (68 percent) worry they will be victims of a data breach in the near future in India. Consequently, consumers now hold businesses accountable - if their data is stolen, the majority (96 percent) of consumers in India would take or consider taking legal action against the compromised business.

When it comes to the businesses that consumers trust least, over half (58 percent) believe that social media sites are one of the biggest threats to their data, with one in five (20 percent) fearful of travel sites - worryingly, one in ten (nine percent) think no sites pose a risk to them.

On the other hand, a third (33 percent) of consumers trust banks the most with their personal data, despite them being frequent targets and victims of data breaches, with industry certified bodies (12 percent), device manufacturers (11 percent) and the government (10 percent) next on the list.

"It's astonishing that consumers are now putting their own data at risk, by failing to use these measures, despite growing concerns around their security. It's resulting in an alarming amount of breaches - 80 percent - being caused by weak or previously stolen credentials. Something has to change soon on both the business and consumer sides or this is only going to get worse," opined Hart.