According to McAfee and the NCSA [National Cyber Security Alliance], less than one in four Americans have their home systems protected properly against both viruses and malware. Other facts they have found are:

When it comes to home computer security, Americans agree that keeping their computer safe is important, but they are not as secure as they think. A new national survey conducted by McAfee and NCSA compared online Americans’ opinions of their computer security to the reality – what security software they were actually running – and found that when it comes to cyber security, most Americans are in dire need of a reality check

 Some of the survey results:

87% believe they have anti-virus software.
73% believe they have a firewall.
70% believe they have anti-spyware software.

The bad news:

Just 22% have anti-spyware software installed, an enabled firewall and anti-virus protection that has received an updated DAT file within one week.

What is disturbing is the term ‘believe they have’. Either you know or you don’t. Which does lead one to believe that these numbers may even be lower than shown.

I wonder if we asked people ‘do you have brakes that work on your car?’ how many would answer ‘believe they have’ brakes that work. Either you have brakes that work on your car or you don’t.

Seems like the public is still of need of more education.

Comments welcome.
Complete McAfee / NSCA report can be found here. It is in .pdf format.

[tags]mcafee, ncsa,spyware, viruses, malware, protections, [/tags]