Almost a third of people don’t trust their council to protect personal data online, with outsourcing raising key concerns - a poll has revealed.
A survey of 2,000 Britons found less than one in 10 believe local authorities are well equipped to deal with a cyber attack while 31% have no faith in their town hall to guard important information.
Research by Zurich Municipal also found 62% of respondents thought town halls needed to do more to raise data security.
This comes in sharp contrast to the opinions of council staff, with a study last year finding 98% of local government chief executives were confident in their ability to deal with data risks.
Local government experienced 243 data breach incidents last year, prompting serious concerns about town hall defences.
Despite a rising number of people now going online to pay council tax and check balances, the survey found over half of respondents wouldn’t trust their council to handle their information following a data loss incident.
Almost three quarters of those polled said outsourcing of services puts their personal data at risk, while only 18% said they would trust third-party organisations to handle their information securely.
Director of public sector at Zurich Municipal, Andrew Jepp, said: ‘More and more people are now accessing council services online and via mobile, but public trust in these services is dangerously low.
‘Councils need to better demonstrate and communicate how they are proactively managing these risks to the public. Not only will this help to convince the public that online services are safe to use, but it will also help to avoid a potential crisis of confidence that could do irreparable damage to their reputation.’
