EuroWire September 2016

Transatlantic cable

with the businesses. About two-thirds of respondents in all three countries surveyed placed a high burden of responsibility on corporations (nine or ten on a ten-point scale) in terms of how proactive they ought to be in preventing hacks and securing the personal data of their customers. What is more, many of the respondents (41 per cent in the USA, 50 per cent in Britain, 38 per cent in Germany) said they are extremely likely to hold corporations fully responsible for preventing such incursions. Signi cant percentages hold that corporations do not accept enough blame for a breach when it does occur. While most of the respondents believe that businesses and large organisations are likely hacker targets, this was not seen as relieving those entities of the obligation to protect themselves. The study found 21 per cent of USA consumers very likely to stop patronising a business known to have been hacked. Centrify found that the people most likely to take their business elsewhere are those who have had their personal information compromised in a hack, those who are tech savvy, and those who are frequent online shoppers. † Because companies generally are loath to publicise a hack of their customers’ information, executive-suite awareness of the extent of the problem is di cult to gauge. But the attitudes uncovered by the Centrify survey should go some way toward persuading businesses to step up their cybersecurity game. Dorothy Fabian USA Editor

When the rst full production model of the two-seater becomes available, in 2018, it will not be o ered for sale. Instead, customers will pay a monthly fee that covers fuel, maintenance, repairs and insurance on the car. This arrangement, says Riversimple, promises a trouble-free experience for the driver; and, for the vehicle that remains the property of the maker, an extended life in service.

Cybersecurity

Survey nds consumers are dissatis ed with how companies handle breaches and inclined to cut their ties with a hacked organisation The results of a recent study of consumer attitudes should go some way toward persuading corporations that cybersecurity breaches should be high on their list of concerns. Commissioned by the security rm Centrify (Sunnyvale, California), the online study, which surveyed 2,400 people across the USA, Britain and Germany, found that 66 per cent of American adults are at least somewhat likely to stop doing business with a company that has su ered a cyberbreach. Even more Britons (75 per cent) said they are somewhat likely to stop doing business after a hack. Centrify , which claims a customer base of over 5,000, including more than half of the Fortune 500 companies (representing two-thirds of USA GDP), also found that most consumers believe the accountability for hacking incidents rests almost entirely

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September 2016