Australians Say they will Stop Dealing with Organisations if Personal Data is Compromised – Unisys Security Index Finds. Almost 9 in 10 Aussies would close accounts with organisations where privacy breaches occurred; many say they would take legal action or publicly expose the issue. The national survey, conducted by Newspoll in September, found that 85 percent of adult Australian respondents say they would stop dealing with an organisation, such as closing their account, if they became aware that their personal information had been breached. Of the 12 countries surveyed in the global research study, Australians are the most likely to say they would take such action.
Of the 12 countries surveyed in the Unisys Security Index, the US and Australia were the two countries where people are most likely to expose the issue publically, suggesting that the Australian public expects organisations to be held accountable for data breaches. Social media like Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook has given consumers a new
channel to publically vent their anger directly to other consumers” Mr Kendall explained.
“The good news is that the survey also found a high level of preparedness by respondents to take proactive individual action in response to such a data breach to reduce their vulnerability, with 88 percent saying they would change passwords on the affected organisation’s website and any others they might be concerned about,” Mr Kendall said.
Percentage of Australians who said they would take the following action if they became aware that personal information that was being held by an organisation they dealt with had been accessed by an unauthorised person:
85% Stop dealing with that organisation, such as closing your account.
64% Publically expose the issue
47% Take legal action
24% Continue dealing with the organisation but not online.
88% Change your passwords on that organisation’s website and any other sites you are concerned about.
Visit MYSECURITY TV to view Chris Cubbage’s interview with John Kendall, Security Program Director, Unisys Asia Pacific, for an overview and findings of the Unisys Security Index.
The Global Malware Problem:
Today, malware is a given on the Internet. With tens of thousands of malware variants discovered every day, organizations of all sizes experience enormous financial losses as cybercriminals steal financial and customer data. Plus, IT labor costs continue to increase as IT staff members scramble to remediate malware infections, and user productivity suffers due to malware-induced outages.
