Many consumers believe a breach of their personal data held by a retailer or agovernment agency is likely to take place within the next year,according to the 2015 Unisys Security Insights survey.

The 2015 Unisys Security Insights survey, conducted by the BlueBell, Penn.-based Unisys Corp. and the Great Neck, N.Y.-basedresearch firm Lieberman, indicate retail and government agenciesare the top two industries that concern consumers the most.

Unisys security experts said that several recent, highly-publicized cyberattacks have increased concern amongconsumers about the safety of their personal data held by variousorganizations, especially those in the retail sector, wherebreaches have hit consumers most directly. The survey results mayalso reflect concerns about the country's general readiness tocombat cyber threats, Unisys experts said.

The study, based on an online survey of 1,016 persons ages 18and over and conducted between April 17 and 19, 2015, polledconsumers in 12 countries about data security and confidencerelating to seven different industries, including the airline,healthcare, retail, telecom, banking and utilities sectors.

In regard to retail, 44% said they believe a breach is likely,with just 19% not expecting a retail security episode to affecttheir personal data.

Government agencies didn't fare much better with consumers, as39% said a breach is likely and 29% are more optimistic it won'thappen.

Among demographic profiles, concerns of a data breach are mostevident across older, middle-aged respondents (ages 50-64).

U.S. respondents had the lowest overall level of concern aboutlikely security breaches among the 12 countries surveyed. Forexample, nearly twice the percentage of respondents in theNetherlands and Germany thought a breach of their personal data waslikely than their counterparts in the U.S. did.

U.S. respondents also conveyed higher confidence in the abilityof financial institutions and healthcare organizations to protectpersonal data. Only 24% of respondents said a breach of theirpersonal data held by a bank was likely in the next year, with 44%saying such a breach was unlikely. For healthcare organizations,only 28% said a breach was likely, and 41% thought it wasunlikely.

“Organizations that hold consumers' personal data have a majorchallenge maintaining public confidence that they safely protectprivate information,” Dave Frymier, vice president and chiefinformation security officer at Unisys, said. “While hackers willalways find their way into an organization's network, enterprisescan protect high-value data through basic precautions like patchingand sharing threat intelligence, as well as using advanced securitytechnologies like micro-segmentation.”

In addition, 38% of American respondents in the survey said theyendorse biometrics to increase their level of smartphonecybersecurity.

Biometric techniques such as voice, signature and facialrecognition allow for advanced authentication, and leverage.

“The age of biometrics is really just beginning in our view,”Jay Meier, vice president of corporate development at the Wall,N.J.-based BIO-key, said. “The failure of passwords and other usercredentials to protect personal or financial data as well networkaccess and data security is forcing companies and governments tolook at better solutions to solve these challenges.”