www.infosentry.com
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release Contact: Glenn Newkirk
24 January 2006 Phone: 919.838.8570
Americans Give Mixed Reviews to Public and Private Groups’ Information Security
A recent national opinion survey
of
M. Glenn Newkirk, President of InfoSENTRY Services, Inc., and research director for this national opinion survey said, “Overall, there was a wide gap between the public confidence in information security in hospitals and medical clinics and in virtually every other institution in our survey.”
InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. contracted Opinion Research Corporation, a leading national opinion research company, to ask a random sample of 1004 US respondents who are 18 years old and over the following question in its CARAVAN® survey:
“Now I am going to read you some types of organizations and governments. As I read each one, using a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 means very low confidence and 5 means very high confidence, please tell me how confident you are that the information in these organizations’ computer systems is accurate and secure.” Table 1 contains summary results of the telephone survey.
Table 1
Net Confidence in Key Institutions’ Computer Systems Security and Accuracy
|
Institution |
Positive Confidence Score (4 or 5) |
Negative Confidence Score (1 or 2) |
Net Security Confidence Score (Positive minus negative) |
|
Federal Government |
52% |
24% |
28% |
|
Large Corporations |
46% |
19% |
27% |
|
State Government |
46% |
24% |
22% |
|
Schools/Universities |
49% |
17% |
32% |
|
Hospitals/Medical Clinics |
56% |
15% |
41% |
|
Local Government |
44% |
22% |
22% |
|
Small Business |
33% |
26% |
7% |
“By aggregating the positive confidence scores (4 and 5) and the negative confidence scores (1 and 2), the survey’s “Net Security Confidence Scores” reveal that hospitals and medical clinics receive a statistically significant higher level of confidence in their ability to protect computer systems and maintain accurate data,” Newkirk said. Hospitals and medical clinics had a Net Security Confidence Score of 41%, leading by a sizeable margin the 32% net score given to schools and universities.
Among the other institutions listed in the survey, the Federal government placed third with a Net Security Confidence Score of 28% and large corporations received a fourth-place score of 27%. State government and local government both had Net Security Confidence Scores of 22%. Small business was in a distant last place with a net confidence score of only 7%.
Newkirk commented, “Hospitals and medical clinics received positive confidence scores from 56% of the respondents and the Federal government received a closely trailing 52% positive rating. However, the Federal government received negative confidence ratings from 24% of the respondents, while only 15% of the respondents gave negative confidence scores to hospitals and medical clinics. That difference placed the Federal government (with 28%) behind schools and universities (with 32%) in their Net Security Confidence Scores.
Newkirk’s analysis concluded that the higher positive scores for hospitals and medical clinics stem largely from three factors. “First, we tend to trust our own physicians and medical caregivers. Second, there have been relatively few sensational stories in the media about security breaches and data errors involving hospitals and medical clinics. Third, anyone who has visited a hospital, doctor’s office, or other medical facility in the past few years has received a statement concerning the privacy and confidentiality of their information. Medical and insurance information now exists in a more regulated environment than it was before the passage of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).” He concluded, “HIPAA was controversial. However it seems to be paying off in the confidence the public has in the security and integrity of healthcare information. Others organizations might take note of this impact.”
On a more sobering note, Newkirk said, “These overall scores do not reflect a particularly high level of confidence in key private and public institutions’ abilities to protect the security and accuracy of their information systems. Everyone would like these confidence ratings to be higher. Some critics will suggest that the figures are at a ‘crisis level.’ That probably is an exaggeration. However, these numbers do not reflect well on public confidence in some of our key institutions’ information security practices. Information technology professionals surely would hope for substantially higher public confidence ratings of their security management practices.”
This report presents the findings of a telephone survey conducted among a national probability sample of 1004 adults comprising 502 men and 502 women 18 years of age and older, living in private households in the continental United States. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage (±3%) points.
Interviewing for this Opinion Research Center CARAVAN®
Survey was completed during the period January 12 – 15, 2006.
InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. is an independent
information technology services firm based in
The survey questions, response set, and the contents of this news release are Copyright 2006, by InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. All rights reserved. The InfoSENTRY logo and InfoSENTRY® are registered trademarks of InfoSENTRY Services, Inc. CARAVAN® is a registered trademark of Opinion Research Corporation.
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