Unisys Security Index 2017: How we compare

New Zealanders worry more about security than ever before. The 2017 Unisys Security Index shows the NZ index sits at 154 out of a possible 300.

That is the highest score New Zealand has registered in the 10 years the Index has run. It is up 12 per cent since 2014. That was the last year the survey ran. Then New Zealand rated 137. Today’s Index is half as high again as the one in 2010.

Yet the New Zealand Security Index is well behind the global Security Index. That now sits at 173. Moreover, the global index climbed 20 per cent since 2014.

NZ less worried than most

Some countries are in far worse shape. In the Philipines the Index now sits at 243. The US is a touch below the global figure at 169. Australia is a touch more concerned than New Zealand at 157. The UK rates lower than New Zealand at a relaxed 144. This seems low considering the terrorism attacks there. The Netherlands scores 125.

Unisys surveys at least 1000 people in 13 countries worldwide to produce the index. Researchers compiling the index asked questions about eight areas of security in four categories:

• National Security includes disasters or epidemics and threats such as terrorism or war.
• Financial Security measures attitudes towards bankcard fraud and other financial matters.
• Internet Security looks at viruses, computer hacking and the safety of online transactions.
• Personal Security is concerned with identity theft and personal security.

New Zealanders worry more or less equally about all four categories, but Financial Security tops the list. It’s the same in the UK and Malaysia. It doesn’t bother Germans at all. America was one of only four countries which listed National Security as the top concern. Australians are most concerned about Personal Security.

Unisys says there has been a noticeable increase in the security index in all developed countries since the last survey.

This is part of a series of sponsored posts about the 2017 Unisys Security Index New Zealand. The first was about attitudes to  security aspects of the Internet-of-things.