New research from telebroker Peoples Choice shows that public concern about buying financial products such as insurance online is still mounting.
The research follows high-profile press coverage of cybervandalism such as the targeting of internet bank Egg in an online raid.
The study, carried out by pollster Mori for Peoples Choice found that 42% of internet surfers who have not shopped online are wary of doing so.
And further damning evidence came from TV programme Newsnight which claimed freely available software on the internet allows hackers to learn people's banking user IDs and passwords and then exploit their bank accounts.
The next three biggest obstacles to people using the internet to buy goods were lack of interest (19%), not being able to see the products on offer (18%), and not yet having tried (17%). The study also asked what course of action people would be most likely to take when buying cover.
The largest proportion (34%), said they would seek information online but buy offline. Only 14% said they would buy online while 13% said they would not use the web to search for insurance.
Peoples Choice managing director Philip da Silva said: "We want to reassure customers about the safety of our site. Security is a key issue for use. We use one of the highest levels of security generally available on the web."
Mori polled 457 users and the survey was carried out in July.
