Thales Survey: 84% Of Brits Reconsider Brands Affected By Data Breaches

Respondents more concerned about theft of money than ID fraud

LONDON, England, October 26, 2016 – Thales, a leader in critical information systems, cybersecurity and data protection, today announced the results of its survey into attitudes towards organisations that have experienced data breaches. The survey showed that 84 percent of respondents would reduce or eliminate the use of an organisation’s products or services following breaches, and only 16 percent of respondents would continue to use an organisation’s products or services as usual.

If you found out an organisation whose products or services you use had multiple data breaches, which of the following best describes how you would react?

• 16% – I would continue to use their products or services as usual
• 27% – I would limit my usage of their products or services
• 37% – I would only use their products or services if I had no alternatives
• 20% – I would stop using their products or services completely

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“It’s important for firms to recognise just how much of their customer base might be lost in the wake of breach incidents,” said Sol Cates, vice president of technology strategy at Thales . “With more than half of respondents saying that they would either immediately stop using an organisation’s products or services altogether, or use them only if they have no other choice, effective security controls specifically placed around data to prevent and minimise damage from data breaches become an absolute requirement.”

The survey also questioned respondents on what they would be most concerned about following a breach of their personal information. The results showed that theft of money from bank accounts was the primary concern, second to identity theft:

If your personal information were stolen in a data breach of an organisation you do business with, which of the following would you be most concerned about?

• 46% – Money being stolen from my bank account
• 38% – My identity being stolen
• 9% – My account login information being stolen
• 7% – Receiving more spam emails

“The theft of money from someone’s bank account as the result of a breach is a very tangible fear, but realistically it is much less likely than other outcomes,” continued Cates, “The implications of identity theft should pose far more of a concern, as they can be extremely painful and long lasting, with clean-up from incidents taking months or even years, and having long term effects on using and obtaining credit when it is really needed. Once your data is ‘in the wild’, your life is never the same.”

- ENDS -

Source/Methodology

The Thales Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research (www.wakefieldresearch.com) among 1,023 nationally representative UK adults ages 18+, between September 22 and September 28, 2016, using an email invitation and an online survey. Quotas have been set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the UK adult population 18 and older.

Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. For the interviews conducted in this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 3.1 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample.

About Thales eSecurity

Thales + Vormetric have combined to form the leading global data protection and digital trust management company. Together, we enable companies to compete confidently and quickly by securing data at-rest, in-motion, and in-use to effectively deliver secure and compliant solutions with the highest levels of management, speed and trust across physical, virtual, and cloud environments. By deploying our leading solutions and services, targeted attacks are thwarted and sensitive data risk exposure is reduced with the least business disruption and at the lowest life cycle cost. Thales and Vormetric are part of Thales Group. cpl.thalesgroup.com

About Thales

Thales is a global technology leader for the Aerospace, Transport, Defence and Security markets. With 62,000 employees in 56 countries, Thales reported sales of €14 billion in 2015. With over 22,000 engineers and researchers, Thales has a unique capability to design and deploy equipment, systems and services to meet the most complex security requirements. Its exceptional international footprint allows it to work closely with its customers all over the world.

Positioned as a value-added systems integrator, equipment supplier and service provider, Thales is one of Europe’s leading players in the security market. The Group’s security teams work with government agencies, local authorities and enterprise customers to develop and deploy integrated, resilient solutions to protect citizens, sensitive data and critical infrastructure.

Thales offers world-class cryptographic capabilities and is a global leader in cybersecurity solutions for defence, government, critical infrastructure providers, telecom companies, industry and the financial services sector. With a value proposition addressing the entire data security chain, Thales offers a comprehensive range of services and solutions ranging from security consulting, data protection, digital trust management and design, development, integration, certification and security maintenance of cybersecured systems, to cyberthreat management, intrusion detection and security supervision through cybersecurity Operation Centres in France, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and soon in Hong Kong.

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