More than eight out 10 people use texts provided by mobile carriers for verifying their identities on the Internet, a survey showed Monday.

According to the survey on 4,000 people aged over 15 conducted by the Korea Internet & Security Agency, 84 percent of the respondents say they have used short message services for authenticating their IDs.

The SMS authentication process is when a user types in their birthday, name and cellphone number and then inputs a security number received through the text message.

The survey also showed that 50.9 percent of the respondents say they have used the I-Pin (Internet-personal identification number) service once.

More than 60 percent of the respondents also say that they use USBs for storing an authentication program, followed by 42.7 percent with smartphones and 41.7 percent with computer hard drives.

In South Korea, people are required to download the program provided by local financial institutions in order to log on to online banking websites or make a purchase at online malls. The program contains Internet banking users' confidential financial information. (Yonhap)