The Hindu Business Line : Better security systems must to boost online business: Study

WEAK password management practices contributed to a wide gap between consumers' awareness and their ability to protect themselves against the incidence of `Identity theft', which threatens to neutralise the advantage of Internet.

"Although government, financial services institutions and the security industry have taken great steps over the past year to increase awareness of identity theft and encourage better security practices among consumers, organisations still need to go further if they want to see an increase in consumer confidence toward online business," says a study about the situation in the US.

The study was conducted for RSA Security Inc, which helps organisations protect private information and manage the identities of people and applications accessing and exchanging that information by Opinion Research Corporation.

Of more than 1,000 consumers surveyed on awareness of security issues, feelings of safety, and use of available safeguards against identity theft and computer attacks, 63 per cent said they were `more informed' about the `identity theft' issue now than a year ago. However, of them, 49 per cent did not consider themselves any safer, and 26 per cent considered themselves more vulnerable now. Only 18 per cent of respondents felt safer this year and of that more than half attributed to their own personal safeguards, while fewer than 30 per cent cited security technology enhancements or changes in bank policies and procedures.

The study said some vulnerability comes as a result of poor management of PINs (Personal Identification Numbers) and passwords for access to online services, desktop computer systems, ATMs and other electronic services.

Nearly two in three respondents use more than one password for all electronic information access, and more than one in ten use only one password for everything.

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