Security Index Up 31 Points

Wellington, 4 December, 2007 –

Security Index Up 31 Points

There has been a significant increase in New Zealand’s Unisys Security Index TM pushing overall security concern to its highest level since the Index was launched in September 2006.

The Unisys Security Index released today is up 31 points compared to the previous result and now stands at 139, the highest result ever recorded in New Zealand.

The sharp increase was driven by a 42 point increase in the National Security Index, pushing it from 93 in August to 135 for December.

The study was conducted nationally, by telephone, over the period 10-16 October 2007 and received responses from 500 adults aged 18 years and over.

“The December 2007 wave of the Unisys Security Index shows New Zealanders expressing significantly higher levels of concern across a range of security measures, not least of which is National Security”, said Brett Hodgson, Managing Director, Unisys New Zealand.

The survey period included the widely publicised raids in Ruatoki and elsewhere by Armed Offenders and anti-terror squads, which took place on the morning of October 15.

Also there were a number of high profile finance company collapses in the period leading up to and including the survey period which potentially may have had an impact upon the last results.

“The latest results certainly buck the previous trend which saw security concerns across New Zealand at consistently low and stable levels and well below that recorded in other Asia-Pacific markets,” Mr Hodgson added.

The key Unisys Security Index results for December were:

• National Security – 135 up 42
• Financial Security –154 up 29
• Internet Security – 133 up 31
• Personal Security – 132 up 21

Fears about war and or a terrorist attack rose sharply, with 40% of New Zealanders extremely or very concerned about this issue, a rise of 19 percentage points, almost double the pervious level of concern.

Similarly, the number extremely or very concerned about a health epidemic rose by 17 percentage points to 45%.

Despite the increase, the top two concerns of New Zealanders remain:

1. Other people obtaining credit card / debit card details
2. Unauthorized access to or misuse of personal information

The Unisys Security Index provides a unique insight into the attitudes of New Zealanders on a wide range of security related issues.

Organisations and governments today confront potential security threats that didn’t exist a decade ago, or, if they did, were not seen as such a pressing concern. These security threats are global and their effects impact individuals on a daily basis. Unisys approach to security goes beyond ‘bits and bytes’ recognising that there are a broad set of political, economic and consumer forces that impact the security ‘ecosystem’. We believe that the most effective solutions are going to be those formed through collaboration across interests, sectors, borders and geographies.

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