Study on Information Security and e-Trust in Spanish households

Abstract

The study on Information Security and e-Trust in Spanish households has been conducted by INTECO (The National Institute of Communication Technologies) through the Information Security Observatory. It is a study on the incidence and trust of users in the Internet by means of measuring the frequency of the episodes of individual risk in a wide sample of users that are monitored online on a monthly basis, combining quantitative data of incidences (monthly scans of home computers) and qualitative perception data (quarterly surveys). The study is supplied with data from more than 3,000 households with Internet connection, spread across the whole country.

For the first time, it allows an evolutionary comparison of the situation regarding security, trust and the level of security incidents in the households of Spanish Internet users. In addition, it shows the habits that affect security on the Internet: security equipment at the households, the measures users take before and after incidents and the perception regarding security on the Internet in Spanish households. It also shows the increasing need of users to force Public Administrations “to make the Internet a safe place”.