The survey of more than 700 European IT professionals found that UK IT managers lose more sleep over their customers' security fears than over direct threats to their websites such as phishing, identity theft or site spoofing.

The research – which was sponsored by VeriSign – found that 88% of UK IT managers rank customer confidence in security at the top of their list of concerns and have allocated an average of 19% of their IT budgets to security measures addressing those fears.

These interesting findings suggest that respondents are wary of what VeriSign calls "the potentially corrosive effect" of growing online threats on customer confidence and online sales.

Researchers also discovered how UK organisations have responded to consumer fears, how consumers have responded in turn, and where opportunities for security improvements remain.

40% of respondents reported using third-party trust marks to make their security credentials more visible to website visitors.

The same volumes of IT managers surveyed also claimed that they had deployed extended validation SSL Certificates – which normally turn the web browser bar green – to provide customers visual assurances that site ownership has been verified by a certificate authority.

Commenting on the results of the survey, Matthew Bruun, VeriSign's director, said that problems associated with transacting online – like phishing and identity fraud – receive a lot of media attention, which can make consumers nervous.

"Businesses with web sites need customers' trust. It costs a lot of money to build a good site, even more to build a brand and advertise it", he said.

"It's an expensive failure if you lose customers at the final hurdle because they don't feel confident enough to buy. Businesses need to demonstrate their security credentials in a very visible way, through technologies like EV SSL Certificates and security seals", he added.