This was said by dietrich schmitt, managing director of IT service provider unisys deutschland, at the presentation of a new study by the company. Only 23 percent of those surveyed agreed that germany should forego its own data protection laws in favor of EU-wide regulations.
Of those surveyed, 81 percent favored making it a legal requirement for companies and organizations to protect personal data to the best of their ability. 69 percent of those surveyed demanded that data security measures be certified by an independent auditing company.
"Every company must see data protection as a core task and secure sensitive data efficiently," said lutz neugebauer, security expert at the industry association bitkom. But it also has to take measures to give its own customers a feeling of security. "Independent certifications can help."
According to the study, users in germany are most afraid of identity theft, for example on the internet. The second biggest worry is the theft of the credit card. Malware such as viruses and unsolicited mail (spam) occupy third place in the list of people’s worries in germany.
Unisys, an IT consulting and software company, conducts a comprehensive study twice a year on people’s security awareness in several countries. Around 1000 participants were surveyed in germany.