Most people still unconcerned about privacy threats

While cyber thieves continue to breach major corporations such as JP Morgan and, just last week, the Salvation Army and Home Depot, Americans still seem to be unconcerned about the growing cyber crisis, according to idRADAR.

73 percent said they did not do anything to protect their privacy or prevent their credit and debit cards from being fraudulently used. This figure is slightly better than the survey results released in June, which was 80 percent.

idRADAR CEO Tom Feige said: “With all the news about new breaches, and new revelations of organized ‘cyber gangs’ in China and Russia stealing sensitive personal and government records, people need to wake up and recognize the crisis and protect themselves.”

The poll showed that the vast majority of people don’t even take the time to change their passwords. Only 11 percent adopt new passwords monthly, now up very slightly from the nine percent that said they did in June. Only 58 percent said they would do it only when forced to by a website or vendor – which is two percent less than said they would in June.

Further, 64 percent of consumers say they still use their debit cards, despite the warnings by retailers of the increased risk of debit over credit cards. That number did improve from 70 percent from the June survey.

All this in the face of growing numbers of credit fraud among consumers. The survey reported an increase of debit and credit card fraud of nearly two percent in just three months.

The survey also reports that almost 43 percent favor the federal government establishing a national data breach reporting law. This is up nearly 2.5 percent from June.

“There is some slight growing concern about the federal government’s role in protecting citizens against cyber breach,” Feige said. “Things are not calming down. They are getting worse and likely to even worsen.”

“Yes, there is an incremental increase in awareness that the federal government must do more, but this is still far below the majority of people,” adds Feige. “Obviously, there is a great need for education on this issue, and consumers must pressure Congress to enact safeguard regulations.”

The survey was conducted in August 2014 by idRADAR among a national random sample of 309 consumer respondents, reflecting a wide range of age, economic and educational groups. The survey has a plus or minus two percent accuracy rate.