RSA Survey Shows Rising Interest in Strong Authentication

Consumers are willing to engage in more e-commerce if banks, auction sites, and other Web-based service providers offer strong authentication, particularly that based on hardware devices, to protect against fraud, a survey shows. Almost half of consumers surveyed said they would be more or much more likely to switch to another online vendor if that vendor offered strong authentication when their current provider did not. Further, more than 67% said they'd be willing to move more of their transactions online if they could use a hardware authentication device. The survey, commissioned by RSA Security Inc. and conducted in May, canvassed more than 8,000 consumers who were asked how strong authentication based either on hardware devices or a networked service would influence their behavior online. RSA is a Bedford, Mass.-based maker of smart cards, USB tokens, and other authentication devices for two-factor authentication, or identification of users based on two pieces of information, something known, such as a password or PIN, and something possessed, such as a token. The survey results offer some encouragement to e-commerce vendors concerned about consumer abandonment stemming from fears of fraud. They stand in stark contrast to a February RSA survey in which almost 25% of consumers said they were cutting back on online shopping and one-fifth said they were no longer willing to do business with online banks. Still, the latest survey uncovered persistent consumer fear of doing business on the Internet. Nearly 83% said they felt threatened or extremely threatened by identity theft, while a like number were threatened or extremely threatened by online fraud. Consumers said they worried most about illicit access to their online bank accounts. According to a summary of the survey released by RSA, the results show online entities have an “open window of opportunity” to restore trust in online channels by offering authentication technologies going beyond typical passwords. When asked about three different security methodologies?strong authentication, firewalls, and anti-virus software?respondents showed equally strong intent to buy each one, “suggesting that authentication has reached the same stratum of necessity and familiarity as the two more clearly mainstream technologies,” the RSA summary says. The results also show consumers are interested in hardware tokens linked to a networked service that would allow them to use the devices at multiple access sites, RSA says. “[Consumers] have effectively thrown down the gauntlet for banks, brokerages, Web e-mail services, auctions sites, and myriad other businesses,” said Chris Young, vice president of consumer authentication services at RSA. “These account providers are therefore facing an extraordinary business opportunity. By offering hardware authenticators, they can up the volume of online transactions.”