Security increasingly important
A few years ago dotcom was predicted to revolutionize the markets. International dotcom-organizations were going to take over world trade. Markets were gonna be more effective and prises would fall. Information would be easy accesible, the competition would increase. All this to the benefit of the customers. None of this seemed to happen.
After 50 years of studies the economists have found out customers is not so interested in searching for information, even when it's easy accesible. The most important reason for this, is that the customers don't know what to search for, or interpret the information they gather. What are the coustomers for example gonna look for when buying life insurance? Instead of searching for information the customers choose to trust the contractor. Trust is therfore what makes a contractor interesting for a customer.
Customers use the internet to make interactions with already established contractors more effecitve, if the contractors are trusted. It's extremely important for the contractors not to loose the customers faith, or future business will be out of the question. What happens if a bank looses a customers personal information? The customer will surely not have anything to do with the bank anymore, but go to a competitor instead (or choose not to use the net at all). Therefore, an organization should think twice before puttin their services online. If they don't have a secure solution they are likely to loose more customers than they gain. Also, the media is fast to point the finger at unsecure solutions, and that can result in customers leaving.
This post is partially based on an aritcle by professor in ecomomics, Fred Selnes, who works here in Norway. He's article in a newspaper is my source for the customer-contractor-trust theory. I thought it might be interesting from a security point of view.
