According to the San Jose Mercury News, a new report shows that Americans are more afraid of cyber thieves and other fraudsters getting into their wallets than they are of terror attacks on the country.

The Unisys Security Index conducted a survey that shows that job losses, salary cuts and the general strain of economic uncertainty have increased consumers’ fears of being victimized. The biannual study samples consumer attitudes about security issues. The most recent survey polled 1,000 Americans and was conducted this year by the Lieberman Research Group.

The survey found that nearly three-quarters of Americans believe the global recession has made them more vulnerable to identity theft or some other fraud.

More than two-thirds of respondents said they were ”extremely” or ”very” concerned about having their credit card information stolen, and 90 percent are at least somewhat concerned, according to the report, which was released this week.

More than 40 percent of Americans were found to be extremely or very concerned about viruses or unsolicited e-mails. Middle-age Americans, especially, have deep suspicions about conducting business online. Forty-nine percent of people surveyed in the 45 to 54 age group are ”extremely” or ”very” concerned about the security of shopping or banking online.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 10th, 2009 at 4:52 pm and is filed under ID Theft Prevention, cybercrime, id theft prevention, identity theft protection. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.