How do banking, IoT, and digital technology affect consumer security?

By Puja Sharma

Utimaco, a global provider of IT security solutions has released a whitepaper, ‘Circles of Trust 2023: Exploring Consumer Trust in the Digital Society’, that takes a deep look at how consumers view trust in an increasingly digital world.

Whereas only decades ago the internet was something that could only be accessed from large, immobile personal computers, today it is everywhere. Digital connections aren’t just in the mobile devices owned by 66% of the world’s population – they’re in streets, vehicles, traffic systems, and in dozens of places throughout our homes. Consumers don’t just need to trust that their bank is keeping their money and data safe – they need to trust that there are no privacy vulnerabilities in their lightbulbs.

In light of this Utimaco released its first edition in the Circles of Trust series in 2022 focused on a sample of the United Kingdom (UK), Spain, and Germany, covering key sectors of automotive cybersecurity to the public and the health sector to uncover consumer perceptions about the digital services that they use every day. The research found a central contradiction of digital life: consumers were very enthusiastic about digital offerings, from connected vehicles to digital health services, but they were equally wary of security risks around these digital services.

This year’s research found this central contradiction remains, but by expanding the geographic scope to the United States of America (US), Mexico, and Singapore, Utimaco has deepened its understanding of trust in digital life. The new research studied and focused on banking, the Internet of Things (IoT), and smart cities and found the following key takeaways from across the world:

• Only 19% of respondents don’t worry about the security of their data

• 36% of respondents have been the victim of data loss, identity theft, or digital fraud

• 41% of respondents believe that a connected world would make their everyday lives easier

In the UK, there was a marked distrust of digital services compared to other parts of the world, particularly regarding IoT devices and smart cities. Although few could define the term ‘Internet of Things’ (20%), UK respondents were the most likely of any group of respondents to answer that smart technologies would not improve lives (17% versus a global average of 10%). Similarly, while only 21% felt that they could define what a ‘smart city’ is compared to 31% globally, 24% saw no advantages to a smart city compared with a global average of 12%.

In other areas, the UK showed more encouraging signs. Only 2% have been affected by a ‘very damaging’ digital attack, compared to a global average of 5% and a rate of 9% in the US, and they have the highest level of trust in their financial institutions to keep their data safe (72%).

“We pride ourselves on driving the conversation around digital trust forward. At Utimaco, we see our role as being not just about creating hardware and software that provides the ‘root of trust in a digital world’, but also communicating to our customers about the social context of that technology. In short, all the security systems in the world will be more effective if end users know and trust that they are effective,” said Stefan Auerbach, CEO, Utimaco. “We see the ‘Circles of Trust’ series of research as a vital tool to temperature test digital trust around the world, and an invaluable resource for any company working internationally.”

Key Takeaways

• Today’s societies are increasingly digitally connected, with 66% of the world’s population owning mobile devices and 38% of respondents using smart devices.
• However, 36% of respondents have been the victim of data loss, identity theft, or digital fraud.
• Consumers don’t just need to trust that their bank is keeping their money and data safe – they need to trust that there are no privacy vulnerabilities in their lightbulbs.