SECURITY INDEX
2020 Unisys Security Index reveals New Zealand’s big security concerns Natural disasters top security concern for New Zealanders, Kiwi women more concerned about impact of COVID-19 than men, and high trust for government tracing tech, 2020 Unisys Security Index finds. New research from Unisys Corporation reveals New Zealand women are significantly more concerned than their male counterparts about the impact of COVID-19, according to the new 2020 Unisys Security Index.
The longest-running snapshot of consumer security concerns conducted globally, the Unisys Security Index asked New Zealanders to assess their level of concern about how global health crises, such as the outbreak of the COVID-19, impacted the economic stability of New Zealand; their job security; their financial security; their family’s physical health; and New Zealand’s health infrastructure. Overall, in the COVID-19 environment, New Zealanders were more concerned about the stability of the nation’s economy, health infrastructure and their family’s wellbeing than their personal health or data security. Women, however, expressed significantly higher levels of concerns for most areas and in particular the stability of New Zealand’s health infrastructure (61 percent of women seriously concerned vs 40 percent of men), the nation’s economic stability (63 percent of women vs 48 percent of men), family health (55 percent
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of women vs 41 percent of men) and financial security (47percent of women vs 35 percent of men) . “These findings indicate that the pandemic is causing women more stress than men, which is likely to be a reflection of their personal experience given the overrepresentation of women in frontline occupations such as healthcare – with nine in 10 nurses female,” said Andrew Whelan, vice president, Commercial and Financial Sector, Unisys Asia Pacific, who is based in Wellington. Top security concerns change in 2020: Return to normality The overall measure of security concerns of the New Zealand public is 136 out of 300, the third lowest of the 15 countries surveyed. It has returned to recent normal levels, down from 143 recorded immediately after the Christchurch attacks in 2019. In 2020, the top three security concerns are natural disasters (47 percent of New Zealanders seriously concerned about this issue), bankcard fraud (44 percent) and identity theft (43 percent). The top security concerns have changed over the last 12 months. After the Christchurch attacks, concern about national security in relation to war or terrorism had jumped to the top of the list, but in
2020 it has returned to its previous position as the second lowest of the eight issues tracked. In 2020, New Zealand women are more concerned about most types of security issues that are used to calculate the index, with a Unisys Security Index of 142 for women compared to 130 for men – 9 percent higher. In particular women are significantly more concerned about natural disasters, ability to meet financial obligations and their personal safety. Despite data theft issues of bankcard fraud and identity theft ranking among the top concerns, the New Zealand public’s concern for the cybersecurity issues that contribute to such theft has decreased: 40 percent of New Zealanders are concerned about computer viruses and hacking, down from 48 percent in 2019, and 35 percent are concerned about online transactions, down from 39 percent a year ago. In addition, when assessing the concerns arising from the global pandemic only 22 percent of Kiwis were concerned about the risk of a security breach while working remotely, and 26 percent were concerned about the risk of being scammed. “Consumers appear to be blasé about the dangers of being online – or simply distracted by their higher
October/November 2020
