E-commerce held back by security concerns

A new survey conducted by TNS Sofres, the world's largest custom market research company and the provider of online research, revealed that customers who make payments through banks and other non cash payment options fear that their passwords and other financial data might be stolen. The "Digital Trust Barometer" survey of 1,000 consumers unveiled that:

57% of Americans are afraid that their account passwords are not safe from thieves;

38% of the surveyed said they don't trust online payments at all;

only 22% felt that the digital technology they used to make payments was safe.

A large amount of the respondents (74%) expressed their fear of ID theft; 44% were concerned about the possibility of their accounts hijacked; 21% of the surveyed were victims of bank data fraud. Out of all the respondents 40% said that they will be doing more shopping on line if the security was guaranteed. 

One third of the respondents expressed their interest in personal handheld security device such as USB key to protect from online password theft. USB keys allow to securely store various passwords, contacts and other data and to automatically plug in to favorite websites with no information left behind when using public computers.