Saturday, December 04, 2004

MSNBC: 77% of home PC users are wrong about net safety

MSNBC reports that a new study reveals that 77% of home PC users are wrong in concluding that they are safe online.

The study conducted by America Online and the National Cyber Security Alliance reports:

Internet users at home are not nearly as safe online as they believe, according to a nationwide inspection by researchers. They found most consumers have no firewall protection, outdated antivirus software and dozens of spyware programs secretly running on their computers.

It also found that:

77 percent of 326 adults in 12 states assured researchers in a telephone poll they were safe from online threats.
When experts visited those same homes to examine computers, they found two-thirds of adults using antivirus software that was not updated in at least seven days.
Two-thirds of the computer users also were not using any type of protective firewall program, and spyware was found on the computers of 80 percent of those in the study.

NCSA has posted a list of the Top 10 Security Tips you can share with your friends and family members who believe they’re safe (but you know they’re not).


Posted by: Jethro | 8:19 PM |