Many computer users lack basic security precautions, survey says

IDG News Service - Cybersecurity efforts in the U.S. government and among many businesses are improving, but many individual computer users still don't take basic precautions against cyberattacks, cybersecurity experts said Thursday.

More than 90% of computer users surveyed recently on behalf of Symantec Corp. have antivirus software installed and updated, and 82% have antispyware protection, said Adam Rak, Symantec's senior director of public affairs. But only 42% of computer users who allowed Symantec to scan their computers had firewalls installed and enabled, only 50% had antiphishing protections installed and 58% had antispam protections, Rak said.

His comments came during an event to mark the beginning of the fifth annual National Cyber Security Month.

Eighty-one percent of those surveyed believed they had firewall software installed, and 75% said they thought they had antispam protections in place, Rak said. "What we have is a perception-vs.-reality issue here," he said.

The National Cyber Security Alliance, one of the groups promoting National Cyber Security Month, recommends that home computer users, at a minimum, have up-to-date antivirus, antispyware and firewall software installed, said Michael Kaiser, NCSA's executive director. Those three software packages won't provide "bullet-proof" protection, but will guard against most cyberattacks, he said.

Computer users rely on the Web to do more things at the same time that online criminals are launching more sophisticated attacks, Kaiser said. "We are actually becoming a Web-based society," he said. "We are on the Web everywhere we go, all the time."

As a result, online criminals are looking at the many new ways people use the Web and targeting those uses, he said. That puts a significant responsibility on computer users to be aware of cyberattacks, including online scams and fraud schemes, he added.

"It's a simple premise that we need to get across: Individual behavior matters," Kaiser said. "What you do matters. How you use your computer matters."

NCSA and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offered a list of ways that computer users and businesses can practice cybersecurity. Among them: change passwords regularly; back up important files; and know who you're dealing with online. Web users shouldn't give out personal information to senders of unsolicited e-mail and they should ask whether a Web site needs their personal information before they give it, Kaiser said.

The Symantec survey also found that just 26% of respondents believed their computers were very safe from viruses and only 21% said their computers were very safe from hacker attacks. Those numbers suggest that cybersecurity advocates have more work to do, Kaiser said.

"When you drive your car, do you only feel safe 26% of the time?" he said.