Mid-sized Businesses & Consumers Do Not Trust Anyone with Regard to Online Data: International Study

Many mid-sized businesses and consumers across many parts of the world are confused and there is a lack of trust when it comes to the privacy and security of their online data and behavior. That’s what a new independent study has suggested. The study was commissioned by Kaspersky Lab with the data analysis undertaken by Applied Marketing Research. It surveyed as many as 600 mid-sized companies with IT security professionals as well as 6,000 consumers with security software installed on their devices, split equally across six countries in Europe and North America, namely, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US.

The top unwelcome intruders were, not surprisingly, cybercriminals, with 45 percent of businesses and 47 percent of consumers worried about protecting their online data from malicious attack. But this is followed closely by wanting to protect it from their own government (36 percent and 33 percent respectively), and foreign governments and companies (30 percent and 26 percent). As many as one in three (29 percent) business respondents have concerns about their employer getting to their online data, while a quarter (26 percent) of consumers worry about their family snooping.

These concerns extended to cybersecurity, where there was widespread confusion about the information cybersecurity providers could access. Many respondents to the study expressed concerns that their provider might gather their online data, opinions, location or browsing habits and then share this information with foreign entities. However, the vast majority (87 percent of businesses and 82 percent of consumers) trust their security provider to behave ethically in the collection and use of their data.

These results suggest that the current cybersecurity landscape has created for both businesses and consumers an environment of fear, uncertainty and doubt that has left many struggling to trust anyone at all online.

Anton Shingarev, VP of public affairs at Kaspersky Lab, said that these research results are indeed amazing. The study has come up with further evidence that technologies and software are a black box for many companies. These respondents don’t know how they work, what’s inside, what data is collected or how it’s stored. As a result, they don’t trust vendors. This, according to Shingarev is unacceptable, and, as an industry, one needs to ensure that people understand exactly what one does and what kind of things a security provider would never do. This should be accompanied by an ongoing commitment to building resilience and security into its products, and proving their trustworthiness through transparency and accountability. All this is embedded in its Global Transparency Initiative, a programme designed to help rebuild trust in information security, he said.

Other findings of the research include:

Privacy appears to be considered a fundamental right for everyone: 46 percent of businesses and 51 percent of consumers believe a cybersecurity provider should not automatically have to share user’s private data with the government related to matters of national security. However, that should depend on the circumstances.

The research also suggests that other things matter more to business and consumers than a company’s country of origin: 55 percent of businesses and 66 percent of consumers felt that their government should do business with the company that offers the highest quality products or services, irrespective of whether it is a domestic or foreign company. Surprisingly, this rises to 82 percent and 78 percent respectively when it concerns areas crucial to national security.

Dr. Milton Mueller, Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy, Internet Governance Project, said that this survey addresses the nexus between nationalism, national security and trust in internet service providers. There are surprising findings regarding consumer and business attitudes towards the role of governments in cybersecurity. For instance, it was fascinating to see how many consumers believed that their government should use the best vendor for national security-related capabilities regardless of their country of origin. Interestingly, consumers are more likely to fear their data will be interfered with by their own government than foreign governments.