Kaspersky Lab Study Examines Privacy and Protection in Cybersecurity

Woburn, MA – November 12, 2018 – Today, Kaspersky Lab published a study of mid-size businesses and consumers, which revealed an overall lack of trust in regards to the privacy and security of online data and behaviors. The research, which covered six countries in Europe and North America, found that people worry about protecting their data from cybercriminals, governments, employers, and even friends and family.

The study, “The Boundaries of Trust: Privacy and Protection in Cyberspace,” highlights research into how consumers and businesses perceive key cybersecurity issues. The results show that 45 percent of businesses and 47 percent of consumers worry about protecting their online data from malicious cybercriminals. This concern is followed closely by wanting to protect their data from their own government (36% and 33%, respectively), as well as foreign governments and companies (30% and 26%). As many as one-in-three (29%) business respondents have concerns about their employer getting to their online data, while a quarter (26%) of consumers worry about their family snooping. 

These concerns extended to cybersecurity, where there was widespread confusion about the information that cybersecurity providers could access. Many respondents worry that their provider might gather their online data, opinions, location or browsing habits and then share this information with foreign entities. However, the vast majority (87% of businesses and 82% of consumers) trust their security provider to behave ethically in the collection and use of their data. 

These results suggest that the current cybersecurity landscape has created for both businesses and consumers an environment of fear, uncertainty and doubt that has left many struggling to trust anyone at all online. 

“These research results are indeed amazing,” said Anton Shingarev, vice president of public affairs at Kaspersky Lab. “They provide further evidence that technologies and software are a black box for many companies. They don’t know how they work, what’s inside, what data is collected or how it’s stored. As a result, they don’t trust vendors. I believe this to be unacceptable, and, as an industry, we need to ensure that people understand exactly what we do and what kind of things a security provider would never do. This should be accompanied by an ongoing commitment to building resilience and security into our products, and to proving their trustworthiness through transparency and accountability. All this is embedded in our Global Transparency Initiative, a program designed to help rebuild trust in information security.”

Other key findings of the Kaspersky Lab research include:

• Privacy appears to be considered a fundamental right for everyone: 46 percent of businesses and 51 percent of consumers believe a cybersecurity provider should not automatically have to share a user’s private data with the government in matters of national security, but that it should depend on the circumstances.
• The research also suggests that other factors matter more to business and consumers than a company’s country of origin: 55 percent of businesses and 66 percent of consumers say their government should do business with the company that offers the highest quality products or services, even if it is a foreign company. Surprisingly, this rises to 82 percent and 78 percent respectively when it concerns areas crucial to national security.

“This survey addresses the nexus between nationalism, national security and trust in internet service providers,” said Dr. Milton Mueller, professor, Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy, Internet Governance Project. “There are surprising findings regarding consumer and business attitudes towards the role of governments in cybersecurity. For example, it was fascinating to see how many consumers believe that their government should use the best vendor for national security-related capabilities regardless of what country it is from. It was also interesting to see that consumers are more likely to fear their data will be interfered with by their own government than foreign governments.” 

The independent study, commissioned by Kaspersky Lab with the data analysis undertaken by Applied Marketing Research, surveyed 600 mid-sized companies with IT security professionals as well as 6,000 consumers with security software installed on their devices, split equally across France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the U.S.

Learn more about Kaspersky Lab transparency principles and the Global Transparency Initiative here: www.kaspersky.com/about/transparency 

The report summarizing the main findings of the research, “The Boundaries of Trust: Privacy and Protection in Cyberspace,” is available here.

Note to editors
On November 13, Kaspersky Lab will be hosting a live online panel debate about rebuilding trust in cybersecurity and minimizing the risks of transparency, featuring IT security leaders and influencers. The debate will be broadcast from Zurich and forms part of the Kaspersky Transparency Summit in Zurich. Further details and registration can be found here.

About Kaspersky Lab 
Kaspersky Lab is a global cybersecurity company, which has been operating in the market for over 20 years. Kaspersky Lab’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into next generation security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialized security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky Lab technologies and we help 270,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.

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