Don’t know why suddenly so many surveys done regarding Internet security. Yesterday, I just posted the result of a survey titled “Is web browser choice a factor affecting security“; today I just came across another security survey done on “Online Security”.

For the study, titled “Open to Exploitation: American Shoppers Online and Offline” and released Thursday, June 02, 2005, 1500 adult U.S. Internet users were asked true-or-false questions about topics such as Web site privacy policies and retailers’ pricing schemes.

Most respondents failed the test, and answered only 6.7 of the 17 questions correctly.

Below are the findings of the survey:-

• 75 percent of respondents wrongly believe that if a Web site has a privacy policy, it will not share their information with third parties.
• Almost half of respondents (49 percent) can’t identify “phishing” scam e-mail messages, which information thieves dress up to look as though they came from a legitimate company
• 62 percent of respondents don’t know that an online store can simultaneously charge different prices for the same item based on information it has on different shoppers

You can try out the test here. (PDF file)

Besides, you can take a phishing test which I post in April this year as well, to see how much you know about phishing. :)

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