Utimaco, a provider of IT security solutions celebrating its 40th year pioneering cybersecurity and compliance solutions and services, 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 be accessed only from large, immobile personal computers, today it is everywhere. Digital connections aren’t just in the mobile devices owned by 66 percent 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 not privacy vulnerabilities in their lightbulbs.
Considering this Utimaco released its first edition in the Circles of Trust series in 2022 focused on a sample of the Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, covering key sectors of automotive cybersecurity to the public and the health sector to uncover consumer perceptions about the digital services they use every day.
The research found a central contradiction of digital life: consumers were enthusiastic about digital offerings, from connected vehicles to digital health services, but they were equally wary of security risks around these digital services.
The research found the central contradiction remains, but by expanding the geographic scope to Mexico, Singapore and the United States, Utimaco deepened its understanding of trust in digital life.
The research studied and focused on banking, the internet of things (IoT) and smart cities and found these takeaways:
- 19 percent of respondents don’t worry about the security of their data.
- 36 percent have been the victim of data loss, identity theft or digital fraud.
- 41 percent believe a connected world makes their everyday lives easier.
In the United Kingdom, 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 percent), U.K. respondents were the most likely of respondents to answer that smart technologies would not improve lives (17 percent versus a global average of 10 percent).
Similarly, while 21 percent felt they could define what a ‘smart city’ is compared to 31 percent globally, 24 percent saw no advantages to a smart city compared with a global average of 12 percent.
In other areas, the United Kingdom showed more encouraging signs. Only two percent have been affected by a ‘very damaging’ digital attack, compared to a global average of five percent and a rate of nine percent in the United States, and they have the highest level of trust in their financial institutions to keep their data safe (72 percent).
The latest edition of the Circles of Trust is released in the same year that Utimaco celebrates its 40th year pioneering trusted cybersecurity and compliance solutions and services to customers globally.
To download a copy of the white paper, visit: https://utimaco.com/survey-how-trust-works-digital-world
For more information, visit: https://utimaco.com/
