One in eight European adults will not shop on the
internet because of security concerns, but four out of 10 are happy
to bank online, according to figures fromEurostat, the EU's statistics
body.
The figures for each member of the EU, released to coincide with
European Commission's
Safer Internet Day on 12 February show that one in four users
suffered a computer virus in 2007. However, 57% used the internet
in the past three months, 30% shopped online, 44% banked online,
and a quarter took regular back-ups of their data.
Just over half of Britons shopped online (53%) but fewer (45%)
banked online. Finns are the most active online bankers (84%) but
also, along with Spain, the most leery about online shopping
(26%).
Nearly a quarter of EU internet users had suffered a computer
virus in 2007, which resulted in a loss of information or time.
Virus attacks were most frequent in Lithuania (41%), Slovenia (35%)
and Malta (34%) and least common in the Czech Republic (7%),
Estonia (15%) and Sweden (16%).
The most regular back-up takers were found in Greece (43%),
France (35%) and Malta (34%), and the lowest in Poland (13%),
Estonia (14%) and Sweden (15%).