Unisys Survey: Consumers Cite Cyber Concerns in Gov’t, Telecom, Retail Sectors

A new Unisys survey has found cyber attacks in the government, telecommunications and retail sectors to be a high concern among many consumers.

Unisys polled 11,244 consumers across 12 countries and 44 percent of the respondents said they believe a data breach is likely to occur in the retail sector within the next year, Nick Evans wrote in a blog post published Tuesday.

Evans, a Unisys VP, reported that U.S. consumers have mixed responses when asked about the effectiveness of smartphone-based fingerprint readers and other forms of biometrics in safeguarding data.

Thirty-three percent of them said they believe in the efficacy of such platforms, while another one-third of respondents said they were uncertain, he noted.

“My personal interpretation of these findings are that the industry can do more to educate consumers about biometrics and their effectiveness as an authentication mechanism compared to other techniques such as one-factor and two-factor authentication,” Evans wrote.

“In addition, it’s important to educate consumers about the full scope of what goes into protecting their personal information, with biometric authentication being just a small part of the overall solution,” he added.