A new survey has highlighted the fact that UK netizens are willing to take risks online as long as they are reassured about the consequences though timely information and restitution policies. The survey, presented in the Trustguide report compiled from research made by BT, the Department of Trade and Industry and the University of Plymouth, talks about the need for more and better education of the public in issues surrounding e-commerce.

The original hypothesis of the report's authors was that people were in general apprehensive of online services because of trust issues, but research data actually showed that UK consumers were willing to use cyberservices and take risks online as long as they were informed of them. However, the study also concludes that currently "education is sparse and disconnected", which results in "ill-founded beliefs" being prevalent and "hampering engagement". In order to provide a way forward the authors propose to bring together a group of professionals from different backgrounds, including security, community and social sciences, which would provide interdisciplinary research into what they term as "trust".

Statistics presented in the report highlight that the vast majority of people think their computer system is relatively secure, with 71% of respondents either satisfied or very confident about that aspect. This presumably stems from the high prevalence of computer security technology: 87% of respondents reported having a firewall installed on their machine, while 93% had an antivirus product, 77% had antispyware and 60% benefitted from antispam. Overall people seem quite versed in the basics of cybersecurity, with 90% of those asked believing it was their responsibility to protect themselves while online, and 65% claiming they had the necessary knowledge to do that. Despite this level of confidence more than 40% felt at risk from cyberfraud and less than 30% were happy with the amount of information held about their person in the cyberdomain.