When surveys collide

It's hard to know who to believe when it comes to identity theft. The topic is a popular survey subject among security vendors and industry watchers, and survey results differ widely.

A survey of 1,000 participants done by TNS on behalf of voice-automation technology provider Intervoice last May showed that "75% of Americans believe their identity is no more secure than one year ago."

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It's hard to know who to believe when it comes to identity theft. The topic is a popular survey subject among security vendors and industry watchers, and survey results differ widely.

A survey of 1,000 participants done by TNS on behalf of voice-automation technology provider Intervoice last May showed that "75% of Americans believe their identity is no more secure than one year ago."

Back to It's raining IT security surveys

Along with those findings, the survey says "technology causes us the most concern about identity theft, more so than person-to-person interactions." The press release about the survey included a quote from Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) about how identity theft is a "very real threat to our economy" and the "nation's fastest growing crime."

The Intervoice survey was timed for release one day before the announcement of the company's Omvia Voice Authenticator, said to "help enterprises protect their customers against identity theft and fraud" through use of voice biometrics.

A separate survey of 603 consumers conducted in October by Momentum Research Group on behalf of RSA Security also highlighted Americans' fear of identity theft, stating nine out of 10 people surveyed had heard of it, as compared with only one in three in France and Germany. But it doesn't look as if people are too spooked: The survey found that two out of three respondents in all regions are conducting a "few more" or a "lot more" online transactions than they were a year ago.

Moreover, according to the 2006 Identity Fraud Survey Report released by the Council of Better Business Bureaus and Javelin Strategy & Research in January, the number of adult victims of identity fraud each year has declined marginally between 2003 and 2006, from 10.1 million to 8.9 million, in the United States.

Most data compromises - 90% - take place through traditional offline channels and not via the Internet, the survey found. The majority of theft was conducted by people known to the victim, at least when the victim could identify the source of the compromise (about half the victims could, according to the survey).

The survey, sponsored by CheckFree, Wells Fargo & Co. and Visa, was based on 5,000 telephone interviews with consumers.