MORE Singaporeans are getting concerned about identity theft, according to the latest survey commissioned by US-based enterprise IT services provider Unisys.
Some 87 per cent of the survey respondents said that they were 'extremely' or 'very' concerned about unauthorised access to, or the misuse of their personal information, in the survey that was done in February to early March this year. While this remained the top security concern among Singaporeans, this figure was up from the 81 per cent that expressed a similar concern in an similar survey done earlier in August last year.
The next security concern on the top of respondents' minds was credit card fraud, which saw some 83 per cent of them 'extremely' or 'very' concerned, up from 80 per cent who said so in the previous survey. The survey, conducted by market research firm Synovate, saw a nationally representative sample of 908 adults aged between 18 and 64 surveyed.
The survey covers four areas, namely national security, financial security, Internet security and personal security. The results are distilled into an overall Unisys Security Index score, where a higher score indicates greater concern about security issues. The index for Singapore rose from 173 in September last year to 188 in the latest survey, out of a maximum score of 300. For comparison, Malaysia had an index score of 173 in a survey conducted last year, which has yet to be updated.
Separately, it was found that most Singaporeans preferred a scan of their fingerprint as their preferred method for identity verification with an organisation such as a bank, or the government.
Some 70 per cent of the 908 adults surveyed in Singapore by Synovate said that they would be willing to use fingerprint scans as a form of identity verification.
The next most preferred form of identity verification was using a personal identification number or PIN, with some 43 per cent of respondents willing to use it.
