Another Cyber Firm Reports about Impending Doom
October 29, 2019
Identity intelligence firm 4iQ summarizes the results of recent research in the write-up, “Identity Protection & Data Breach Survey.” They polled 2,300 participants regarding data breaches and identity protection issues. You can see a slide show of the results here that presents the results in graph-form.
Researchers found that fewer than half the respondents had been notified they were victims of a breach. Most of them were offered identity protections services as a result, but about half of those felt that fell short of adequately addressing the problem. We also learn:
“*Nearly 40% of respondents believe they have already suffered identity theft and more than half of respondents, 55%, believe that it’s likely their personally identifiable information (PII) is already in the hands of criminals. As a result, 62% of respondents are concerned that their PII could be used by someone to commit fraud.
*More than half, 52%, of respondents said they would expect their own online security error to negatively or very negatively affect their standing with their employer—an additional stress for working Americans—so it’s not surprising then, that 60% of respondents believe there’s a ‘blame-the-victim’ problem with cybercrime.
*A strong majority, 63%, are concerned that prior breaches could lead to future identity fraud, and 37% believe they have already been a victim of fraud as a result of a cybercrime incident.”
As for protecting personal identifiable information, 75% feel their employers are doing a fair to excellent job, but only 42% feel the government is do so effectively. They feel even less confident about their personal efforts, however, with only 15% calling themselves “very effective” (23% rated their employers as “very effective”).
On that last point, 4iQ states it demonstrates that “everyday consumers may feel unprepared to contend with the threats presented by cybercrime,” which is not surprising from a company that sells solutions to that problem. We know there are free and low-cost measures individuals can take to boost their own security, but some will be willing to pay for extra reassurance on top of those precautions. Based in Los Altos, California, 4iQ was founded in 2016.
Cynthia Murrell, October 29, 2019
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