American Shoppers to Blame Financial Institutions in Case of Data Breach

With the holiday season fast approaching, American consumers already know who to hold responsible if their credentials are stolen in a data breach. 68% of the shoppers say banks should shoulder part of the blame, no matter where the breach occurred.

Shopping goes into overdrive during the holidays, increasing the chances of a breach or other incident. Regular people are very much aware that they could become victims at any point, and 66% of them believe their data could be compromised. Moreover, 65% of shoppers think the holidays come with a higher risk to their financial information.

The crux of the "How Fraud Stole Christmas" study is that people will look towards financial institutions in case of a data breach, even when it's not their fault. The study goes says that 58% of holiday shoppers will blame both the financial institution and the source of the data compromise.

"According to the data, this will have a direct impact on the bottom line as financial institutions stand to lose almost half (45%) of their customer base if data is compromised over the holidays," states the study. "This includes nearly two out of 10 consumers (19%) that say they'd leave the bank and close their account following a data breach and another 26% that would only keep their accounts if their financial institution took specific actions to improve security."

Despite being aware of the risk inherent to the shipping season, many users take too few precautions. 35% don't use a single payment option and combine debit and credit cards, and 45% of shoppers used more than two cards. The statistics get even worse in regards to multi-factor authentication, with only 7% of the users employing such a countermeasure.

The biggest concern for Americans is not related to financial data breaches but to identify theft. 23% of the respondents say that Social Security numbers are the most relevant data that could be lost during the holiday season.

The study surveyed over 1,000 consumers in the United States over the age of 18.