PCWorld

Survey: Consumers Only Think They're Cyber Safe

Respondents to a McAfee/NCSA survey claim to have protected their PCs, but many haven't: 78 percent of the PCs scanned in the survey lacked either antivirus, antispyware, or firewall software.

Grant Gross, IDG News ServiceMonday, October 01, 2007 12:00 PM PDT

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Most U.S. consumers believe they're protecting their computers against cyberattacks, but their actions indicate they aren't as safe as they think, according to a study released Monday.

Eighty-seven percent of U.S. consumers surveyed believe they have antivirus protection installed on their computers, but scans of their systems found only 52 percent have antivirus software that's been updated in the last month, according to a study by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and McAfee Inc. More than nine in 10 consumers surveyed said they believe their computers were protected from viruses.