ID Theft Is Singaporean’s Worst Nightmare

October 5th, 2006: A new Unisys study has found that the citizens of Singapore are more concerned with information security and identity theft than they are with terrorism, war and epidemics such as bird flu.

Conducted by Synovate, the survey measured levels of concern held by Singaporeans towards a range of security issues across four areas of National, Financial, Internet and Personal Security.

The number one concern was misuse of personal information, followed by other people obtaining credit or debit card information, and thirdly, concerns about a serious health epidemic occurring in Singapore.

“The nature of security has changed dramatically over the last decade,” says Scott Whyman, Vice President and Managing Director, Unisys Asia South. “In order for businesses and governments to respond to this changing environment it is important to understand the levels and types of concern in the community towards security issues.”

“The benchmark Singapore Unisys Security Index stands at 173 out of 300. With a mid-way point of 150/300, the Singapore Index suggests that levels of concern are somewhat elevated. That said, this is the benchmark Index and we need to see future comparative data to put this rating in context,” he added.

In comparison, the equivalent Index results for Australia and New Zealand were 126 and 114 respectively. At the same time, however, Malaysia also scored 173.

Some of the key survey results include:

• 81% or an estimated 1.9 million people said they were extremely or very concerned about unauthorized access to or misuse of their personal information.

 

• 80% or an estimated 1.9 million Singaporeans said they were either extremely or very concerned about unauthorized access to or misuse of their Credit/Debit card details. 

 

• 73% or an estimated 1.8 million Singaporeans were extremely or very concerned about a health epidemic. 

 

• 66% or an estimated 1.6 million people said they were extremely or very concerned about the threat posed by war or terror attack. 

This was the first time The Singapore Unisys Security Index was conducted, Unisys is looking to strengthen these results with further studies and expects that this survey will be undertaken three times annually from 2007.

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