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Patients Cite Privacy, Cybersecurity Fears with Vax Credentials
A new poll shows that Americans have doubts about the cybersecurity of a digital vaccine card.
American and British adults are fearful of using a digital, COVID-19 vaccination card and vaccine credentials due to privacy cybersecurity concerns, according to results of an Anomali/Harris Poll.
The study gathered responses from more than 2,000 American adults and more than 1,000 British adults.
The Harris Poll found that three-quarters of those surveyed have cybersecurity fears of using a digital vaccination card.
“A majority of British and American adults predict that a disruptive cyberattack will follow digital vaccine card adoption, but they differ in other areas, such as confidence levels when it comes to how prepared each nation is to mount a defense,” a press release on the findings notes.
According to the poll, a total of 80% of Americans and 76% of those in the UK have cybersecurity concerns related to COVID-19 digital vaccination cards. Of those cyber concerns, identity theft is the highest on the list for both US and UK adults. Those polled also cited fake vaccine cards being used to hack smartphones, and data breaches as their second and third top cybersecurity concerns.
“When asked to identify what type of adversary is most likely to carry out a cyberattack related to COVID-19 digital vaccination cards, Americans most frequently choose nation-state cyber actors like Russia, China, or North Korea (36%). U.K. respondents expressed that organized cybercriminal gangs were most likely (42%,)” the survey states.
The poll results show that 32% of Americans and 21% of Brits said they were not very likely, or not at all likely, to use a digital vaccine card.
Those polled also believe that cyberattacks could come from the use of a digital vaccination card. A total of 64% of all respondents said they “expect that COVID-19 digital vaccination cards will lead to a cyberattack causing moderate to major disruption to business, government, and consumers.”
Another finding from the Anomali /Harris Poll showed only 48% of Americans believe that the government and private business can defend consumers against a related cyberattack.
The Harris Poll, one of the longest-running surveys in the US, conducted the poll on behalf of Anomali, a cybersecurity firm. The surveys were done from June 30 to July 7, 2021.
