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By Dominic Maher, 26 September 2000 14:30

NEWS Only eight per cent of businesses pay utility bills online and the future doesn't look too good with only a further 15 per cent looking to do so within the next three years. This is according to a poll conducted on behalf of Convergent Europe, a digital business specialist in the utilities sector, which surveyed 341 businesses in Benelux, Italy, Spain and the UK. David Pitt, president of Convergent Europe, said the recent spate of security flaws, such as the Powergen scandal, has made businesses very cautious. He said: "There is tremendous caution when paying bills online. Although consumers have shown much more willingness to move to electronic bill payment over time, the real caution is coming from business consumers." Pitt explained that business customers are much more aware of the vulnerability of data sent online. He said: "Companies these days are paranoid about control of what we call intellectual property. Beyond concern about billing information, it's about 'how much of my competitive information do I want on there? Can people see interim information about customers? Can my competitors see what I'm planning for the future?'" Harri Cherkoori, corporate development manager at digital media consultants Oven Europe, agreed with the conclusions Pitt drew from the report. He said: "Most systems are very insecure. The stories we hear in the media are only the tip of the iceberg." Cherkoori explained that security flaws appear when projects start to break deadlines and security is moved down the priority list in order that ebusiness contracts can be completed on time. But Julian Kenyon, spokesman for Northern Electric, dismissed the survey's results, stating the utility's systems were secure. He said: "Our systems are as tight as they can be. We are not aware of any problems in our systems." SILICON SAYS: Businesses that might consider paying bills online are once again questioning the whole security issue that surrounds the web. Confidence in ebusiness will remain low, and scandals such as Powergen will arise, until service providers realise that security should be the number one issue for any online venture. silicon.com is conducting a campaign to raise confidence in ebusiness security. We are asking the UK technology sector to back the Data Protection Act by lobbying government to provide the Data Protection Commission with the resources it needs to ensure the internet is secure for customer data.
If you would like to join our campaign send us a mail to mailto:backtheact@silicon.com .