Some of the fastest-growing countries in the world are also the most anxious about threats to their borders, financial fraud and other security issues, the Unisys Security Index has revealed.
The results showed that Brazil, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore topped the list of most concerned countries in the index, which measures consumer perceptions on a wide range of threats.
All four are top exporting countries among those surveyed, and each has an economy growing at an annual clip of better than 3% as measured by gross domestic product, says Unisys.
The company explains that each of the four also has a high rate of concern about bank/credit card and related financial fraud, presenting challenges to investors from the US and elsewhere looking to do business in those countries.
"A strong, globalised economic base appears not to be a guarantee of a sense of security among citizens," notes Tim Kelleher, VP of enterprise security at Unisys. "Nor is it a guarantee of smooth sailing for foreign investors."
Published three times a year, the Security Index surveys more than 13 000 people in 14 countries, including Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, the UK and the US.
The study measures consumer perceptions on a scale of zero to 300, with 300 representing the highest level of perceived anxiety.
Key findings of this edition of the index include:
* Brazilians have the most fears across the four areas of security (national, personal, financial, Internet), with an index ranking of 188. Airport safety and robbery/banditry in urban areas top the list of specific fears in Latin America`s largest country.
* Hong Kong (179), Malaysia (174) and Singapore (172) follow Brazil in terms of overall concern.
* People everywhere are worried about financial security or challenges in paying bills or threats from misuse of credit/bank cards or personal financial data. This concern ranked from moderate to extreme in all 14 countries.
* The British have fairly serious fears of bank card fraud (184) but feel mostly secure about their ability to pay bills on time (98).
* Australia and the US are more anxious about threat to national security than the possibility of epidemics.
* Germans are worried about Internet security (155), and the Italians are not (64).
* The French are the least worried: the overall index reading for France is 83.
* As a group, the 14 countries aren`t particularly over-concerned, as evidenced by an overall Security Index reading of 137.
The overall Unisys Security Index score by country are as follows: Brazil (188), Hong Kong (179), Malaysia (174), Singapore (172), Germany (160), US (151), Australia (144), U.K. (138), Belgium (131), Spain (115), New Zealand (108), Netherlands (98), Italy (90) and France (83).