Inspire Consumer Confidence by Addressing Their Security Concerns

In a study from 2010, RSA surveyed over 4500 adults from 22 countries about their feelings, thoughts, and knowledge of today’s security threats. We want to highlight some of the results from this survey to show you how important security is to consumers and clients and to show how you can help them feel confident about your company.

Online fraud and cybercrime are featured more frequently in the media and the security and privacy risks of social networking has also been discussed at great lengths, this has in turn caused consumers to become more aware and more knowledgeable about online security risks. Because they are more aware, they are also more concerned and expect more from the websites of organizations they interact with on a regular basis. They expect that the companies they have an online relationship with should keep them secure.

One of the most important findings in the survey was the lack of confidence in banks. With more and more elements of one’s daily life being conducted on the Internet, the survey asked consumers how concerned consumers were with having their personal information accessed or stolen at any of these four types of sites: Banking, Healthcare, Government, and Social Networking. Surprisingly, an overwhelming 86% was concerned about banking with social networking a close second at 81%. Government (68%) and Healthcare (61%) trailed behind. This is surprising since financial institutions have showed concerns and taken steps to improve online security for their customers while other sites only require a regular user name and password to access an online account.

In addition, 80% of survey respondents felt that banks need to implement a stronger form of security than a user name and password and a full 92% felt that banks should monitor their accounts for suspicious activity. It is obvious that consumers hold banks to a higher standard than any other sites they interact with online and that high security also impacts an organization’s consumer confidence. Consumer confidence can be directly attributed to increased transactions.

When asked how increased security would impact their willingness to transact online, 92% said they would be more confident. When asked how stronger security features in addition to username and password would impact their willingness to interact, purchase items, and submit personal information to the sites they regularly visit, 72% said they would be more likely to submit personal information online.

SafeCentral’s WebProtection
To help you increase your consumer confidence and thereby your revenue, SafeCentral’s WebProtection™ is a one-time install, light-weight data loss prevention (DLP) application that operates under the assumption that the user’s machine is already infected with malware ensuring that endpoint data is secure. WebProtection™ interprets and intercepts over 5,000 discrete Windows commands (from write to disk, to save in RAM and beyond) and effectively blocks all potentially dangerous activities except those processes needed for the transaction. Unlike other tools, WebProtection™ goes down deep into the DNA of the Windows operating system and is able to control all processes during a secured transaction.

If you require your commercial clients to use WebProtection™, you are helping them increase their revenue, keep their endpoint data secure, and increase your own revenue while keeping your customers’ data secure as well. Learn more at: http://www.safecentral.com/banking-user.html.

To read the survey in its entirety, you can access it at: http://www.rsa.com/products/consumer/whitepapers/10665_CSV_WP_1209_Global.pdf.