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Hell Hath No Fury Like a Consumer Scorned

Organisations are feeling the heat when it comes to data security. A combination of frequent high-profile data breaches, headlines devoted to the latest data privacy regulations and personal experience has increased awareness of data security and the value of their personal information for consumers across the globe.

When PCI Pal surveyed over 8,000 people in the United Kingdom, America, Canada and Australia as part of a consumer survey to discover payment security preferences when sharing information online and over the telephone, the research uncovered significant changes in attitude and trust to security practices that were ultimately altering spending habits.

It seems the UK and Australia share similar views when in comes to data breaches, with 44% of UK consumers and 43% of those in Australia claiming they will stop spending with a business for several months in the immediate aftermath of a security breach and 41% and 43% reporting they would never even return post-breach! In contrast, a huge 83% of US consumers would not return to a compromised company in the months after a hack but only 21% reported they would stay away for good. Somewhere in the middle are Canadian consumers – 58% would avoid breached businesses temporarily and a fifth suggested they would never return.

It seems that ‘devil-may-care’ attitudes to protecting customer data is coming at a high cost for businesses around the world. Regardless of location, all the above statistics would be a hard hit for any organisation should the worst happen. And serve as a stark reminder for companies that if they are lucky enough to survive the initial – and costly – fines associated with a breach of their customers’ data, could they recover from the rest of the fall out? Legal costs and, most importantly, losing their customers’ trust and revenue.

Though many of the findings between each country differ, worryingly for the retail and travel industries in all nations surveyed they were viewed as untrustworthy sectors. With 40% and 35% of UK, 50% and 40% of Australian, 65% and 41% of Canadian, and 19% and 16.4% of US rating these industries as the worst when it comes to data security practices.

We have put together a handy infographic summarising the findings of our global research, including the different stances when it comes to providing card information over the phone and which countries favoured local or larger chains handling their sensitive information.

What our research shows in all countries surveyed is that to avoid the loss of their customers trust – and revenue – businesses must protect themselves from the increasing likelihood of a data breach. PCI Pal has helped companies of all sizes, all over the world to prepare for the worse by ensuring there is simply no data to steal.

For more information, download the global ebook.

The post Hell Hath No Fury Like a Consumer Scorned appeared first on PCI Pal.


*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Knowledge Centre – PCI Pal authored by Lorna Bradford. Read the original post at: https://www.pcipal.com/en/knowledge-centre/news/hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-consumer-scorned/