Consumers say they're taking more action to create strong passwords and limit the amount of information they reveal on the Internet.
One in four Americans say they’ve been the victim of a data breach or cyber attack. And the perception of online risk is rising sharply, according to the new Travelers Consumer Risk Index.
Travelers surveys consumers each year to create its risk index. This year, worries about cyber risks grew by more than 20 percent from last year, making online problems the third ranked concern in the survey. And Travelers Patrick Gee told WNPR there is a wide range of perceived risks.
"Sixty-two percent of people are concerned that they may have their bank account or their financial accounts hacked into; we had about the same amount concerned relative to virus attacks," Gee said. "About two thirds of people were concerned that they may have some form of online identity theft, relative to information that they're keying into websites. And we had about the same amount as well concerned that they could have information taken from relative to doing transactions with retailers."
But the survey also showed consumers taking action to protect themselves, with 78 percent saying they create strong passwords, and 76 percent limiting the amount of information they reveal on the Internet.
Those findings will be reassuring to Jonathan Harris, Connecticut’s Commissioner of the Department of Consumer Protection. He just launched Cybersecurity Month in October. He said consumers now have no choice about participating in online systems.
"You know, the way the world works now, that your personal information, medical information, social security number, date of birth, your name, your address -- it's residing in numerous places out in cyberspace, for a lot of different purposes, most of them good," Harris told a news conference. "So you cannot avoid this, there's no way you can avoid this. But, you've got to live, just like you've got to cross the street and there's some risk to that, you've got to live and you've got to be out there. There's steps that you can take to protect yourself."
Harris described the battle between online cheats and companies as an arms race, saying retailers who want to protect customers information must constantly update their protection measures.
