A new survey conducted by the identity software management provider, Centrify, has revealed that 75 per cent of adults in the UK would stop doing business with, or would cancel a membership to, an organisation if its database was hacked.
The research of 2,400 people across the UK, Germany and the US analysed consumer attitudes towards hacking and how likely people are to continue transacting with businesses – including banks, retailers, governments, travel, hospitality and health companies — after experiencing a cyber-attack.
Chief product officer at Centrify, Bill Mann, said: “If three-quarters of customers are prepared to walk away from a business if it has been compromised, then what kind of message is this sending to those organisations? We would say that it is a very clear call to action to those businesses to sort out their processes and do everything they can to protect confidential customer information. When companies put customer data at risk they are really putting their entire business at risk. People simply will not tolerate doing business with potentially risky organisations, so it’s time for them to take full responsibility for their security and put the proper measures in place once and for all.”
According to the survey, financial institutions appear to acquire the best reputation in dealing with security breaches compared to the other sectors listed; with governments and HMRC coming in second. However, retailers rank fourth and travel sites fifth in each country, while membership and hospitality businesses came in at the lowest level.
View the survey infographic here
