In a latest survey, IEEE, the world's largest professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, drew in responses from over 1,900 technology enthusiasts on digital safety and the future of cybersecurity.

The online survey was hosted on IEEE Transmitter from February 16 - 29. The survey asked participants who are actively engaged in technology trends a variety of questions on several topics including mobile payments, home internet monitoring, secure email accounts and cloud storage.

"Now more than ever, cybersecurity is a necessary safeguard to our digital lives, which hosts a variety of our private and personal information," stated Diogo Monica, IEEE member and security lead at Docker. "Cyberattacks can now unfortunately happen in nearly every element of our lives, such as our car, connected home and wearable devices. Whether it's putting more reliance in digital systems for our currency or trusting that our email accounts are secure, we need to be cognizant and take the necessary precautions to protect our digital footprint."

According to the results, when asked what year mobile payments would be secure enough to the point where traditional methods (such as cash and credit cards) would no longer be required, 70 percent of respondents indicated a major shift by 2030.

“More than half of survey respondents believe digital currency is the future”, the release said.

26 percent of participants also noted that the cloud was the “least preferred” method for storing their information; 49 percent of respondents chose personal computer log as their primary option.

IEEE noted that respondents had concerns regarding other considerations to their digital footprint. When asked about their personal information being available on certain platforms, respondents believed that online banking (72 percent), syncing to the cloud (53 percent) and banking/mortgage information (60 percent) were “extremely risky”.

"These results emphasize the need for more research in cloud security," stated David Brumley, IEEE member and director of CyLab at Carnegie Mellon University. "We need to develop more tools to test software vulnerabilities, and we need them more broadly adopted."