Cybercrime, user ignorance lead to Net activity limits

IDG News Service - U.S. residents believe they are more likely to be victims of cybercrime than physical crime and that concern is leading them to be more cautious online and, in some cases, to limit Internet activities, according to a new survey. However, a second survey, conducted by a U.K. banking authority, indicates that users may regard online security as someone else's problem.
A study conducted by Opinion Research Corp. on behalf of IBM Corp. found that more than three times the number of respondents believe it is more likely they will be a victim of cybercrime than of an actual physical crime. As a result, Internet users in the U.S. are becoming more careful about the kind of information they provide online, IBM said.
The survey was taken of nearly 700 adults who said they have Internet access either at home or where they work. According to the study, 75 percent of respondents are taking measures to protect their data and personal information when they are online because they are afraid of identity theft (43 percent), loss of money (24 percent) and harm to their credit-ratings scores(13 percent).
Seventy percent of respondents will only use Internet shopping sites that display a security protection seal, while 64 percent will not conduct online transactions on a shared computer, the survey found. Moreover, 50 percent of users don't use public wireless networks, such as hotspots in airports or coffee shops, 38 percent don't bank online and 37 percent will not use credit card information online.
Internet users who were more comfortable providing personal data on the Internet cut back on the kinds of online activities they participated in during the last 12 months, according to IBM. Twenty-seven percent of participants in the survey have stopped buying from unfamiliar retailers online, while 18 percent of stopped paying bills online and 16 percent have stopped playing online games.
Meanwhile, a report from the U.K. Financial Services Authority (FSA) suggests that user ignorance is as much to blame for banking-industry inadequacy for online banking insecurity.
In its Financial Risk Outlook 2006, published Wednesday, the authority identified several groups of banking customers that it says present the greatest security problems. Five percent of the users polled take no security precautions whatsoever when using banking Web sites, and a further 21% think it unlikely that criminals could access their accounts without the user knowingly having supplied the log-in. Overall, the FSA found that the young tend to be less security-conscious.
User ignorance appears in that report to translate into a