The adoption of biometric technology for the verification of identities is something which many Britons agree with, according to a recent report.

It was revealed by the Unisys Security Index that 75 per cent of people interviewed were happy to allow financial institutions, government agencies and similar organisations to use fingerprint technology as a safety measure.

The UK ranked highest when asked how many people would welcome this ID verification, well ahead of France with 45 per cent of respondents and Spain with 53 per cent.

Jim Norton, the senior policy adviser for e-business and e-government at the Institute of Directors, commented that new technology meant different hurdles for IT support in companies hoping to protect against ID theft and data loss.

"Recent high-profile stories of data loss should strengthen the call for a balanced approach using the appropriate authentication technology but also focusing on the right processes and behaviours," he added.

The Unisys Security Index is able to provide a different look into consumer attitudes from 13 different nations while remaining impartial about security concerns across the globe, according to the company.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were guaranteed response times and allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues.