Consumers and businesses in the U.K., Germany and France, and to some extent in the U.S., are willing to take security risks to make use of online transactions, reports InternetRetailer, citing a new RSA Security "Internet Confidence Index." Consumers are somewhat less confident than businesses, though. On a scale of -100 to +100, consumers' security index score was 5, compared with a transaction score of 37, whereas businesses had a security index score of 22 and a transaction score of 55.

The survey found that consumers and businesses in the U.S. are less trustful of internet security than European counterparts. Some 67 percent of U.S. businesses reported degrees of concern about the vulnerability of their networks, much higher than the European average of 37 percent.

Nearly half of U.S. consumers said they have little or no confidence that various groups (government, standards organizations, ISPs, among others) take the necessary steps to secure personal data.