Four Fifths Of UK Consumers Worried About Identity Theft

Identity theft is a major worry for those who are online, a new survey has found.

The research, which was commissioned by Centrify Corporation, questioned 1000 consumers in the UK, and found that 81 per cent said they were “concerned” or “very concerned” about the prospect of having their identity stolen.

One in four respondents said they had definitely or probably had their identity stolen, and 43 per cent of those said it took over a month to fix the ensuing issues. 47 per cent said they had to spend money to solve the problems caused, and 28 per cent had to fork out at least £60 to that end.

Aside from identity theft, the second most concerning issue respondents indicated was having credit card details stolen online, which 79 per cent of folks were worried about. Being a victim of cyber-crime came in third at 73 per cent.

Email spam concerned 68 per cent of respondents, and the privacy of social networks was a bugbear for 59 per cent.

As for the least worrying aspect that the survey questioned consumers about – that turned out to be cyber-bullying, which is only a concern for 40 per cent.

Tom Kemp, CEO for Centrify, commented: “According to our survey, online purchases were the top reason that users thought they became victims of identity theft, underscoring the importance of confidence in one’s own online security.”

“Consumers have very little faith in the absolute security of their passwords, as just 15 per cent believe those passwords are very secure, regardless of the amount and type of characters used. Being able to manage our password security is crucial.”