Security Strategy, Plan, Budget

75% of UK consumers won’t do biz with a company that has been hacked

Three quarters of UK consumers would stop doing business or cancel memberships with an organisation if it was hacked.

New research from Centrify discovered that 73 percent of consumers in the UK admit that it has become normal or expected for businesses to be hacked, yet only half feel they are taking enough responsibility for their customer's information security. The survey evaluated responses from 2,400 people across the UK, Germany and the US.

About two thirds of respondents in each studied country rated organisations as a nine or 10 on a 10-point scale when it comes to how responsible they should be for preventing hacks and securing the personal information of their customers.

Those that are more than likely to take their business elsewhere following a data breach include individuals who have had their personal information compromised previously in a hack, tech savvy people and those who shop regularly online.

Financial institutions have the best reputation when dealing with security breaches compared to other sectors. Government/local government and HMRC come in second. Retailers rank fourth and travel sites fifth in each country. Meanwhile, membership and hospitality are ranked the lowest.

Around one third in the UK have been notified of a hack from organisations going public with news of data breaches, thus contacting their customers directly. Of those, 45 percent found that their personal information, such as credit card info, had been compromised.

“When companies put customer data at risk they are really putting their entire business at risk,” said Bill Mann, chief product officer at Centrify. “People simple will not tolerate doing business with potentially risky organisations, so it's time for them to take full responsibility for their security and put the proper measures in place once and for all.”

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