How low is public trust in data security?

New Symantec research released today has found that public confidence in the data security standards of various business sectors is shot to hell.

Unsurprisingly for a vendor looking to shift as many units of its data loss prevention solution as possible, the research paints a pretty grim picture. Of the 1,000 UK adults asked to rate their level of confidence on a scale of one to six, with one the most confident, banking came out top with 3, while retail, telecoms, transport and the public sector fared slightly worse.

Online retailers may have something to think about if this research is to be believed as they scored the worst, with a 3.7 average.

Symantec's senior product marketing manager for data loss prevention, Chi-Chi Liang, did a wonderful job of marketing Symantec's product for data loss prevention, by declaring that the low level of trust can be linked to an increasing number of high profile data loss incidents - many of which have been caused by simple employee error.

"The task for organisations in both countries is to win back customer confidence by reassuring them that world-class data loss prevention measures are in place," added Liang. We can't think whose DLP tools Ms Liang might be referring to.

To take a more glass-half-full view of this research though, isn't it more noteworthy that public confidence is still so high, despite the ever-increasing barrage of data loss incidents from public and private sector?

If most sectors scored around a 3, which is mediocre, then one could say public confidence is more resilient to media scare stories than we perhaps give it credit for.