UK Surfers Worth a Shocking £361Billion to Identity Thieves

In a survey of YouGov conducted for VeriSign, the digital security company, it was revealed that an individual Internet user in United Kingdom could lose a good amount of £10,077 in a single year on account of identity fraud over the Net.

According to the survey result, that's the mean total amount of money comprising banking, shopping and gaming balances in possession of an UK Internet user on his online accounts. Thus, every year, as VeriSign's research shows, UK's Web users are facing risk for a collective £361 Billion by disclosing personal information on Websites suffering low protection.

According to Jon Kerr, SSL Manager of VeriSign, it is indeed shocking to know that UK residents are valued that much. Kerr also added that if enterprises are to earn profit from Internet-based businesses, it is important that they approached the consumer with a properly secured site, as reported byITPRO on March 7, 2008.

Further, the YouGov survey suggested that UK surfers are increasingly becoming confident about revealing their personal data. The research found that 65% of them now share information with their bank over the Internet, 58% with online sellers while 31% feet no harm in leaving their details on Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites.

However, online particulars face increasing risk of theft as UK users willingly share confidential information providing fraudsters with opportunities to misuse them. This sharing was evident from 75% of respondents disclosing their birth date, 70% giving away their residential address and 68% telling the maiden name of their mother.

The survey's outcome also revealed that UK users' astonishing trust while surfing, as 79% were concerned about theft of identity, and almost half, 43% had suffered identity fraud or knew of somebody as a victim of the crime.

Also, according to recent reports, the topic of Internet security has moved up in priority in UK's political agenda. This happened after a House of Lords report about personal online security criticized an attitude of "laissez-faire" towards Internet safety on the part of various groups, including the Internet Security Protocols, the software and hardware vendors, and the Government.

Related article: US Passes Baton to Asia in Spam Relay

» SPAMfighter News - 3/24/2008