Published Paper Details:

The scope of this investigation is limited to digital consumer trust, with a focus on online purchases and sensitive data storage (e.g. patient records for an online health service). It does not consider how consumer trust may affect digital markets in the developing world as this is quite a different issue. The investigation is mainly qualitative in nature, as it seeks to understand the consumer/corporate mindset and to also understand what measures are currently being taken to mitigate the effects of security breaches. This is a complex issue and the use of primary research would be required to give a full understanding. However, this is outside the scope of this study. Outcome measures from this study would be to understand the priorities of companies and to also compare security methods with perceived consumer trust in various industries. This could help to identify areas where improvements in security can lead to increased consumer trust and, in turn, increased use of digital services. This paper sets out to investigate the ways in which cyber security can affect digital consumer trust both positively and negatively. The findings in this paper will help to give an understanding of how far-reaching the effects of security breaches and cyber-attacks can be for companies looking to establish a digital business. This is an area which affects all businesses from small to large, new to established, as in today's modern age it is both very difficult and expensive for a company to entirely avoid using internet- based technology frequently in the form of cloud systems. The purpose of this paper is to discover whether cyber security is having an inhibitive effect on companies looking to enter the digital market. It has been hypothesized that any negative effects on consumer trust as a result of security issues will lead to companies either staying with current non-digital offerings or withdrawing altogether from the market. This is an important topic and one which until now has not been widely researched. The issue of digital marketing is huge and the trend is for all companies in the future to have some form of digital offering. If there is a factor which is an inhibitor to this process, it needs to be known and understood as to its effects.