Many Business Leaders Do Not Trust Their Own Companies to Secure or Manage Sensitive Information, First-of-its-Kind International Survey Shows

• Unisys Trusted Enterprise Index reveals major gaps in maintenance of security and privacy
• IT and business leaders disagree on top attributes for building and eroding trust
• Most and least trusted industries identified

BLUE BELL, Pa., November 15, 2006 – Business executives focus hard on revenue and the bottom line and increasingly devote resources to corporate governance and security matters. Yet, almost one in every three of the more than 1,700 senior-level corporate and technology leader respondents in a new international survey do not trust their companies’ own ability to handle private or sensitive information, and that same number are either unsure or don’t believe that most of their business partners consider them to be trusted enterprises.

These and other findings are part of a broad research project called the Unisys Trusted Enterprise Index, a first-of-its kind survey measuring the importance, impact and influence of trust, privacy and security within the corporate world. Conducted in partnership with the Ponemon Institute, a privacy research organization, the study also found that despite a growing awareness of risk management and security issues in the corporate world, more than one-third of companies polled do not task senior leaders with protecting the trust that customers, investors and even their own employees have in those companies.

“It concerns me to see the overall lack of preparedness among business leaders to monitor and protect the trust their companies have with customers, vendors and even employees, especially given how devastating a breach of trust is to a company’s reputation and bottom line,” said Mike Gibbons, vice president and general manager, Enterprise Security, Unisys.

“Of equal concern is the disconnect between business and IT executives over how to build a trusted organization,” Gibbons continued. “Trust must be the cornerstone of every risk management plan. All senior leaders must be aligned on how to measure trust and ensure complete visibility of IT security and privacy matters throughout their organizations. They must think about security and risk management as a proactive strategy that can build trust rather than as solely a defensive measure.”

Technology and Business Leaders Disagree
The first phase of the research polled CEOs and other senior business executives as well as senior IT executives at leading U.S. and U.K. companies, and found a clear disconnect between the views of business leaders and technology leaders on the factors that build and erode trust. IT leaders placed a much stronger emphasis on protecting privacy and IT security while business leaders focused on more financial-oriented measures.

Business Leaders:

• Business leaders place value on risk management and good corporate governance practices to build trust much more than do IT leaders.
• Business leaders believe negative cash flows, a lack of shared values and weak fiscal management are much more likely to erode trust than do IT leaders.

Technology Leaders:

• IT leaders believe that positive media coverage, IP protection and responsible marketing practices build trust much more than do business leaders.
• IT leaders find inadequate intellectual property protection, weak privacy and undependable IT erodes trust much more than do business leaders.

Industries: Winners – and Losers
Among all industries included in the research, retail banking is the most trusted in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Beyond this, there are distinct differences in U.S. business leaders’ views on trusted industries versus their U.K. counterparts. Healthcare surfaced as among the most trusted industries in the United States, yet is among the least trusted in the United Kingdom. Similarly, government is highly trusted in the United Kingdom and one of the least trusted sectors in the United States, according to respondents.

Geographically, the top three most and least trusted industries are:

• U.S. – Most trusted: Retail banking, healthcare and professional services vs. Least trusted: insurance, telecomm and entertainment and media
• U.K. – Most trusted: Retail banking, local government, education and professional services vs. Least trusted: entertainment and media, healthcare and retailing

Trust Builders
The drivers of corporate trust are atypical from the more traditional, measurable factors that influence Wall Street and commercial success. Despite an increased sensitivity to corporate ethics and compliance among corporations today, customer satisfaction, leadership, prudent fiscal management, and customer respect are ranked much higher by business leaders surveyed as the most influential builders and stewards of trust. Factors including market capitalization, market share and others rank much lower.

Factors that erode trust are not necessarily interchangeable. Unethical business practices, customer dissatisfaction, lack of respect for employees and customers and poor leadership are the top five factors that erode trust within an organization.
 
“Trust is an intangible asset that is often overlooked until it’s too late,” said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of Ponemon Institute. “Many companies devote tremendous dollars and resources to increasing market value, but as our research proves, in order to build trust among customers, employees and investors, they may be focused on the wrong factors, or ignoring the right ones altogether.”

The research underscores that while more quantifiable factors such as compliance and financial performance tend to get the attention of boards and their leaders, “softer” factors that build trust - how a company treats customers or motivates employees – need equal attention.

About the Research
The research was conducted on behalf of Unisys by the Ponemon Institute. The Ponemon Institute polled 1,700 respondents from a sampling frame of more than 30,000 business and IT leaders comprised of CIOs, CEOs, Boards, security and privacy experts in the U.S. and U.K. in the month of September, 2006. Surveys were conducted online with option for web-tel.

The research is part of a broader multi-year global initiative, the Unisys Trusted Enterprise Index. The Index will serve as a comprehensive tool for companies and governments to better redefine their own security and business processes for greater impact and visibility into the cause and effect relationships between business and technology goals.

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Contacts

Danielle D'Angelo, Unisys, 914-262-9834
danielle.dangelo@unisys.com

Dawn Lauer, Peppercom for Unisys, 212-931-6185
dlauer@peppercom.com