Concerns about identity theft are beginning to put people off shopping and banking online.
In a survey commissioned by software firm Intervoice, 17% of people said they had stopped banking online while 13% had abandoned web shopping.
Concerns about how secure identity is online have risen following high-profile phishing attacks.
The term [phishing] refers to the practise of creating look-alike websites, often of banks and other financial institutions, and duping people into visiting them and giving out personal information such as pin numbers and passwords.
Fifty seven percent saw ID cards as the best way to protect themselves against identity theft.
Stealing identities is often a piecemeal affair, as thieves garner small bits of information bit by bit and gradually create a persona.
There’s a couple of things in the results of this survey that worry me…
Concerns about how secure identity is online have risen following high-profile phishing attacks.
- The real life equivalent of this is stating that “Bogus Doorstop traders gaining access to your home and stealing all your valuables is causing people to lock their front doors when they go out”. The problem with phishing is that it’s a confidence trick rather than a security breach…While it’s great that people are becoming aware of phishing, it worries me how little understanding of it there appears to be of the actual problem.
Fifty seven percent saw ID cards as the best way to protect themselves against identity theft.
- Let me get this straight… having a card on you, at all times, which contains large amounts of personal data, about you, which can be read by anyone with the correct equipment, is the best way to protect your identity…? Oh, and all that data is also stored centrally, and you have no idea who has access to it. The logic of the British Public is staggering!!
By the way, anyone else think that 57% stat is going to end up being used by the government as an approval rating…
BBC NEWS | Technology | Public worried by online ID theft
