Worried, but they don't buy anti-virus protection

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians are very concerned about their online privacy and data security. But, ironically, many do not have anti-virus protection for their computers. These were the findings of an international survey commissioned by F-Secure. It was conducted by Zoomerang in May in Finland, Germany, Malaysia, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. A total of 1,450 respondents were surveyed. An average of 49 per cent of the respondents said they had been hit by  malware in the past 12 months, but their security software had notified them and prevented infection.
Malware, short for malicious software, is designed to secretly access a computer system without the owner's informed consent.
       "Germany seems to combine a high level of worry with a low level of exposure to the actual threats. "Caution is good when surfing the Web but being overly concerned may also prevent people from experiencing the full benefits of the Web. "There is also a learning curve - as people become exposed to threats, they also learn how to deal with new situations and become more confident and less concerned," said F-Secure security response senior manager Chia Wing Fei.
       The survey results also showed that many computer users around the world were still unsure about security issues. For example, many did not know if their computers had been infected. In Sweden, the figure was 38 per cent, followed by US (34 per cent), UK (33 per cent) and Germany (32 per cent).
Germans (65 per cent) and Malaysians (59 per cent) were the most concerned about downloading malware from a website, compared with just 22 per cent of respondents in Finland. An average of seven per cent of respondents in the seven countries did not know what malware was, with the highest scores recorded in the UK (12 per cent), United States (12 per cent) and Malaysia (nine per cent). The risk of  poisoned search results, which criminals use to lead people to malicious websites, was taken most seriously by the Germans and British.
       A significant proportion of Americans and the British were not aware what poisoned search results are. Rogue ware, such as the bogus security products that take computers hostage and fool people into making payments to remove fictitious malware, was a term only understood in Sweden and Poland.   The survey also found that credit card crime was most prevalent in the US, where 32 per cent of the respondents had personally experienced it or knew someone who had been a victim. Malaysia (27 per cent) and the UK (27 per cent) also reported a relatively high level of credit card crime, while the lowest incidence was in Poland (11 per cent) and Finland (12 per cent).


Reference:

     Ramachandran, S. (2010, October 10). Worried, but they don't buy anti-virus protection. New Straits Times.