The 
results from the Unisys Security Insights survey has found that Australian’s have the least amount of trust in telcos to protect their personal information with 58 per cent expecting a data breach in the next 12 months.
This year alone, two of Australia’s biggest telco providers suffered data breaches, Telstra’s Pacnet recently suffered a breach which saw an unknown third-party gain complete access to Pacnet’s corporate network, while Optus admitted to three data breaches affecting more than 300,000 customers.
The Unisys Security Insights survey asked over 1200 Australian’s how confident they feel about the security of the personal information they provide to organisations.
After telcos, the survey revealed a lack of confidence in Government agencies ability to protect personal information with 49 per cent of Australian’s believing it’s likely their information will be unlawfully accessed. This was followed by 46 per cent in Banking and Finance, 45 per cent in retailers, 40 per cent in utilities and 36 per cent in health organisations.
“Unisys research has shown that 85 per cent of Australians say they would stop dealing with an organisation if they became aware that their personal information had been accessed by an unauthorised person. A breach of personal information impacts many organisations and individuals with potentially with long-term ramifications and organisations must take action to regain public trust and increase positive sentiment. To build trust organisations not only need to take preventative measures to ensure data security, they need to be seen to be taking such steps,” says John Kendall, Director of Security Program for Unisys Asia Pacific.
Subsequently, airlines took the title of the most trusted industry; less than one third of Australian’s expect the industry to access their personal information inappropriately in the next 12 months.
“Yet as airlines start to capture more information about passengers to offer personalised services, and aid border security measures, they will bear a greater responsibility to protect such sensitive data,” says Mr Kendall.
John Kendall, Director of Security Program for Unisys Asia Pacific is available for comment and can discuss:
- The overall results from the 2015 Unisys Security Insights survey
- Where are data breaches are most likely to occur
- What organisations can do to regain the public’s trust about their personal information
- Security considerations for organisations where data breaches
