Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 26 | Page 31

INFOGRAPHIC (58%) were found to have a lot of work to do, with these being sectors that consumers would leave if they suffered a breach. “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,” says Jason Hart, CTO, Identity and Data Protection at Gemalto. “In the face of upcoming data regulations such as GDPR, it’s now up to businesses to ensure they are forcing security protocols on their customers to keep data secure. It’s no longer enough to offer these solutions as an option. These protocols must be mandatory from the start – otherwise businesses will face not only financial www.intelligentcio.com consequences, but also potentially legal action from consumers.” Despite their behaviour, consumers’ security concerns are high, as a third (33%) worry they will be victims of a data breach in the near future. Consequently, consumers now hold businesses accountable – if their data is stolen, nearly half (43%) of consumers would take or consider taking legal action against the compromised business. Consumers trust some industries more than others When it comes to the businesses that consumers trust least, over two thirds (68%) believe that social media sites are one of the biggest threats to their data, with nearly a third (29%) fearful of travel sites. On the other hand, nearly a third (28%) of consumers trust banks the most with their personal data, despite them being frequent targets and victims of data breaches, with the government (23%), device manufacturers (19%) and industry certification bodies (9%) next on the list. Hart continues: “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% – 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.” n INTELLIGENTCIO 31