MANILA, 2 August, 2017 – Philippine consumers recorded the highest level of concern about security issues among the 13 countries surveyed in the 2017 Unisys Security Index™.
The overall Unisys Security Index for the Philippines is 243 on a scale of 0 to 300, considered a serious level of concern and is 70 points (40 percent) higher than the global average.
The Unisys Security Index is a global study that gauges the attitudes of consumers on a wide range of issues related to national, personal, financial and Internet security. The study polled 1,000 adults in the Philippines during April 2017. The 13 countries surveyed are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, UK and U.S.
The equal top two areas of security concern for Filipinos are:
• Identity Theft: 93 percent of Filipinos are concerned about unauthorised access to, or misuse of, personal information.
• Natural disaster: 93 percent of Filipinos are concerned about natural disasters such as epidemics, floods, typhoons and earthquakes.
There is also a high level of concern about data security threats:
• Bank Card Fraud: 89 percent of Filipinos are concerned about other people obtaining or using their credit/debit card details.
• Viruses/Hacking: 88 percent of Filipinos are concerned about computer and Internet security in relation to viruses, unsolicited emails or hacking.
“Consumers are concerned about the issues that are most likely to impact them personally,” said John Kendall, director of border and national security programs, Unisys. “Approximately nine in ten Filipinos are seriously concerned about identity theft, credit card/debit fraud and computer security reflecting the very real threat that their personal details may be stolen and sold on the dark web – highlighted by last year’s breach of the Philippine voter registry database.
“Organisations that collect and use Philippine consumer data need to show that they employ robust cyber resiliency frameworks to safeguard the data in their care, from both malicious and accidental data breach threats. Identity is fundamental to addressing these issues. Anchoring our identity with secure multifactor authentication (including biometrics) provides a strong deterrent to unauthorised people accessing personal information, finances and the IT systems we all depend upon,” said Mr Kendall.
The Philippines is the only country where natural disasters ranked in the top two concerns. “With the more than 7,000 islands that make up the Philippines located on the ‘ring of fire’, earthquakes and typhoons are a common occurrence – generating not only the physical threat of the events themselves, but also the flow-on impact to the economy and daily living. Digital technology can help address this via ‘smart cities’ strategies featuring interconnected and intelligent infrastructure to automatically detect, predict and manage responses to better protect citizens and minimise impacts,” said Mr Kendall.
The Philippine Government is staking proactive action and last December 2016, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) formally launched the National Cybersecurity Plan (NCSP) 2022. “While the benefits of ICT adoption are expanding, the risks and dangers associated with Internet usage are also rapidly increasing. We must take proactive action to protect our nation’s critical information infrastructure so that Filipinos can enjoy the new services and innovations available via in our increasingly internet connected world, without putting themselves at risk,” said Engr. Allan Cabanlong, Assistant Secretary for CyberSecurity and Enabling Technologies at the DICT.
The research study also looks at the Philippine public’s willingness to share personal data with organisations via data analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT) – where devices can share information with other devices or systems via the Internet. The findings suggest that Filipinos want control over when they share their information. Key findings include:
• The vast majority of Filipinos, 94 percent, support using a button on their smart phones or smartwatches to alert police to their location during emergencies. In contrast, only 42 percent of Filipinos support police being able to monitor fitness tracker location data at any time.
• 84 percent of Filipinos support medical devices such as pace makers or blood sugar sensors automatically transmitting significant changes to a patient’s doctor. Yet only 54 percent of people support health insurers tracking fitness monitor data to determine premiums or even reward healthy behaviour.
• The top reasons given by Filipinos for not wanting to share data with organisations via IOT devices is that they don’t want that organisation to have their data or that there is not a compelling enough reason to give the organisation such data.
• Only half of Filipinos support using an app on their smartwatches or smart phones to make payments, citing concern about data security as the top reason for not supporting this. However, 79 percent of Filipinos support fingerprint scans to control who can access data on their smartwatch, and 71 percent support finger print scans to authorise payments by their smartwatch suggesting that this may be a way to overcome data security concerns.
• Filipinos strongly support IoT and data analytics as a part of border security processes: 91 percent support police or border security staff wearing facial recognition body cameras to identify known criminals or terrorists; and 77 percent support border security officers in airports using data analytics to assess the travel history of passengers to determine if they are eligible for fast-track border clearance.
• However, there is low support for other government agencies accessing personal spending data from credit card records and insurance policies. Only 45 percent, of Filipinos support the tax office using such data to verify tax returns, and even fewer, 35 percent, support welfare agencies using this data to verify claims.
• There is also low support for banks analysing data collected about their customers from multiple sources to offer them targeted services and products – supported by only 44 percent of Filipinos.
“Consumers weigh up whether there is a compelling enough reason for an organisation to capture and analyse detailed information about them – balancing privacy against the benefits being offered. The findings reveal law enforcement, national security and serious medical conditions are considered acceptable justification, but others are not. Government and commercial organisations need to take this into consideration and position their services accordingly if they want Philippine consumers to take them up,” said Mr Kendall.
About the Unisys Security Index
Unisys has conducted the Unisys Security Index – the only recurring snapshot of security concerns conducted globally – since 2007 in order to provide an ongoing, statistically-robust measure of concern about security. The index is a calculated score out of 300 covering changing consumer attitudes over time across eight areas of security in four categories: national security and disaster/epidemic, in the National Security category; bankcard fraud and financial obligations, in the Financial Security category; viruses/hacking and online transactions, in the Internet Security category; and identity theft and personal safety, in the Personal Security category. The 2017 Unisys Security Index is based on online surveys conducted between 6-18 April, 2017 of nationally representative samples of at least 1,000 adults in each of the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, the U.S. and the UK. The margin of error at a country level is +/-3.1 percent at 95 percent confidence level, and 0.9 percent at a global level. For more information on the 2017 Unisys Security Index, visit (www.unisyssecurityindex.com.ph).
About Unisys
Unisys is a global information technology company that specialises in providing industry-focused solutions integrated with leading-edge security to clients in the government, financial analytics, cloud and infrastructure services, application services and application server software. For more information, visit: www.unisys.com.
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