Home computers fall foul of spyware epidemic
26 October 2004
A massive 80 per cent of home computers in the United States are infected with spyware, according to a new survey.
Research by the US National Cyber Security Alliance and America Online showed that four out of five of the 329 dial-up and broadband adult computer users surveyed had a home computer infected with spyware or adware of some kind.
Over three-quarters of those surveyed thought they were safe from online threats, but two-thirds did not run current anti-virus software on their PCs.
Nearly half of the broadband users studied had no firewall configured on their PCs, while just seven per cent of dial-up users had any kind of firewall.
One in five of the computers surveyed was infected either by a virus or a worm and 88 per cent of users were not even aware their PCs were infected.
NCSA chairman Ken Watson said: "Extrapolating the percentages in our survey, this indicates that millions of Americans are at risk - and are already infected - by viruses, spyware, and adware."
The NCSA is a non-profit, public-private partnership which aims to create awareness and promote education of cyber security.
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