Research by Equiniti, the FTSE listed FinTech and regulatory services business, shows that lifestyle factors such social media and banking habits can make people targets of cybercrime. The study, conducted by YouGov, revealed that as many as 11.7 million people in the UK had been victims of financial cybercrime1.
| What makes people more likely to be victims? 1. Your Phone Respondents with HTC (37%) and Motorola (27%) phones were the most likely to be targeted. Sony users (19%) and those without a phone (16%) were the least likely. Owners of the UK’s best- selling phone, the Apple iphone (25%), are in-line with the national average (24%). 2. Social Media habits 30% of cybercrime victims were LinkedIn users, making them the most popular targets. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter users were in line with the national average around 25%, but the safest were those who don’t use social media, of whom only 17% had been victims. 3. Where you live Londoners were the prime targets for cybercriminals (30%), while that number dropped to around one in four (24%) nationally and as low as one in five (21%) in the North of England. 4. Banking habits Those who have switched bank accounts (28%) or used mobile banking apps (26%) were also slightly more likely to be targeted than average (24%). 5. Age Under 25s were the least likely to be victims, with only 13% targeted. While those between 35 and 54 we the group most likely to fall prey to online criminals (26%). |
The study revealed that many of the people who use digital banking (online or mobile apps) do not consider them to be ‘very secure’, suggesting that convenience outweighs their concerns. 87% of respondents said they banked online through a computer, however when asked how secure they thought it was, only 17% described it as ‘very secure’. Likewise, 48% respondents said that they did bank through a mobile app, but only 9% of all respondents thought it ‘very secure’.
Equiniti is developing a platform and support service which will allow its banking clients to use biometric security measures on their mobile apps. Facial and voice recognition technology can be used in tandem with geo-location recognition to reduce the risk of theft and identity fraud, including ‘proof of life’ validation for recipients of payments.
Commenting on the findings, Alistair Blaxill, CEO of Equiniti’s EQ Digital business, said:
“These findings show that people value the convenience of online services so much that they will use them even though they think there may be risks attached. While best practice regarding the use of passwords and public networks is important, Equiniti is developing security measures that mirror the convenience of these services. We are investing in biometric technology for the banking sector that will help reduce the risk of being targeted by criminals without adversely impacting the way services are accessed.”
- 24% of all respondents to a nationally representative sample said ‘yes’ when asked ‘Have you ever been the victim of financial cyber-crime? By this, we mean identity theft, hacking, transaction fraud etc.’
