American consumers' response to identity theft

In a study of more than 1,000 Americans, Unisys Corporation reveals a large percent of respondents consider filing claims against organizations and government agencies that compromise their personal information. The Unisys Security Index surveyed the opinions of consumers on a variety of security concerns involved with revealing personal information to organizations and the ultimate risks of identity theft as a result. According to Unisys, 90 percent of respondents indicated they would take some form of action in the instance of their personal information being breached. More than half stated they would take legal action against the company, 76 percent would consider closing their account and 87 percent would change the password linked to the account. "The latest results of the Unisys Security Index suggest that organizations face very real business and financial implications for security breaches," said Steve Vinsik, vice president of enterprise security at Unisys. "Given recent highly publicized breaches that have exposed large amounts of sensitive data, the results should be a wake-up call for organizations to take more proactive measures to protect customer data."