How Many Customers Avoid the Web Because of Security?

In early February 2008, Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, released statistics showing that one in eight adults do not use electronic commerce because of concerns over Internet security and virus attacks. The data was collected from the 2006 and 2007 surveys on Information and Communication Technologies usage in households and by individuals in the European Union (EU).

Most e-commerce security concerns in Spain and Finland
In 2006, 12 percent of individuals aged 16 to 74 in the EU—a full one-eighth of the population—did not order goods or services over the Internet because of worries about giving credit card or personal details online, i.e., identity theft. These security and privacy concerns were most common in Spain (27 percent), Finland (26 percent), and Cyprus (20 percent).

One-quarter of Internet users suffered a virus attack in 2007
The Eurostat numbers also suggest that viruses could play a substantial role in stunting the growth of online commerce, as in 2007, nearly a quarter of EU Internet users had a computer virus that resulted in lost information or time. Virus attacks were most frequent in Lithuania (41 percent), Slovenia (35 percent), and Malta (34 percent) and least common in Sweden (16 percent), Estonia (15 percent), and the Czech Republic (7 percent).

One way of protecting against the loss of information is to regularly make a safety copy or a backup file of information. In the EU in 2007, nearly one in four users always or almost always made safety copies or backup files from their computers. The highest proportions of individuals making safety copies were in Greece (43 percent), France (35 percent), and Malta (34 percent) and the lowest in Sweden (15 percent), Estonia (14 percent), and Poland (13 percent).
Another way of protecting against lost information, viruses, identity theft, and other dangers on the Internet is to use the Check Point ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite.