Over 79 per cent of individuals in the UK are prepared to give away some personal details in the street that might allow a criminal to steal their identity, according to a recent survey by RSA Security. Important personal details such as a mother’s maiden name, or a date of birth, was readily obtained by researchers, which is worrying as web sites often use this information for security checks. Two-thirds of respondents also used the same password across the average of 20 web sites at which they had registered, which RSA interprets as a “huge disparity between the perceived risk of physical and online identity theft”.
With 11 million UK bank customers now using online accounts, and a massive proportion storing access passwords in their wallets, RSA is warning of a rise in identity theft as criminals thwarted by the security of EMV payments seek ‘softer’ targets. Unless UK consumers take responsibility for the security of their passwords, Britain’s current losses to identity theft will increase, said Tony Neate, of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit. Infosecurity Europe also ran a recent survey in which 34 per cent of respondents volunteered their PC password without having to be bribed, with a further 34 per cent revealing it when probed.
UK consumers use an average of 4 passwords each, and over 70 per cent responding to the Infosecurity Europe survey, would reveal their computer password in exchange for a bar of chocolate. Up to 80 per cent of office workers are fed up with passwords, however, and 92 per cent would prefer to use tokens or biometric authentication to access their PCs, the Infosecurity researchers found. For access to online banking services, 86 per cent said biometric or token-based authentication would increase their confidence both in terms of secure access, and the security of their personal information.
Silicon.com