How much time and effort will consumers put into protecting themselves from ID theft and financial fraud? That was the question posed by Aite Group's Julie Conroy in researching the new Global Security Engagement Scorecard. And the answer might just surprise you.

For instance, would you have guessed that out of seven countries surveyed - Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, South Africa, Spain and the United States - Indian consumers are the most concerned about identity theft and payment card fraud? And that No. 2 on the list for security engagement is South Africa? Canada claims the bottom spot, by the way, with the U.S. weighing in next-to-last.

What is comes down to, says Conroy, a research director at the consultancy, is this: There is a direct correlation between the level of security engagement and the extent to which consumers believe they have skin in the game.

"As you look at countries like India and South Africa, where the concept of zero-liability for fraud is not well established, we found dramatically more engagement and willingness to engage in fraud prevention and security," Conroy says in an interview with Information Security Media Group. "At the end of the day, the consumer has a vested interest because they have actual financial exposure in the case of fraud."

But in the U.S. and Canada, where consumers are legally protected from feeling the full burden of fraud losses, the consumer engagement is significantly lower, the study finds.

"In the U.S, market, it's a beautiful thing that we have Reg E and Reg Z that protect us [from fraud losses]," Conroy says. "But at the same time, it makes bringing a more interactive fraud prevention and security experience very challenging. We don't have a lot of consumers who would be willing to put a dongle into their computer and stick an EMV card into it to do a [card not present] transaction. There just would not be that level of tolerance because it would be a complete inconvenience."

Achieving a Balance

Organizations are going to continue to struggle with the question of balancing security versus a frictionless customer experience, Conroy says. But as both fraud and regulation evolve in different markets, she expects the Global Security Engagement Scorecard will shift, too.

In this interview about her latest research (see audio link below photo), Conroy discusses:

Key findings from the study; The message to financial institutions and other organizations seeking to balance security and convenience; How regional regulatory changes might create shifts to the scorecard in 2017.

At Aite Group, Conroy covers fraud and data security issues. She has more than a decade of hands-on product management experience, working with financial institutions, payments processors and risk management companies, including a number of years managing the product team at Early Warning Services.