US Computer Users Not So Concerned With Security

from the interesting-metric... dept

I'm not quite sure how they came up with this benchmark, but a US security group is upset that more people know about when Janet Jackson had her wardrobe malfunction than when they last updated their anti-virus software. Still, other parts of the survey do suggest that Americans aren't taking computer security threats all that seriously, believing they have a great chance of being hit by lightening, being audited by the tax man or winning the lottery -- than getting hit by a computer security problem. The study also claims that 91% of PCs were infected with spyware, which seems very high and makes you wonder what they consider to be classified as spyware.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Phoopharker, 4 Oct 2004 @ 7:54am

    No Subject Given

    Heh - based on my own personal experience of finding tens, if not hundreds, of individual 'hits' when running Ad-Aware/Spybot/whatever on random PCs, I'm not in the least suprised by the 91% figure. Even if it's really closer to 80% (still not suprising), it just serves as evidence that Joe Sixpack can't be expected to have enough technical accumen to manage his own machine, despite the commoditization of the computer, an (obviously) complex combination of technologies that can befuddle those of us who work with them daily.

    Two words, folks: Job Security.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Oct 2004 @ 11:18am

    Re: No Subject Given

    Usually, most items the spyware remover tools seem to find are tracking cookies. I bet everyone that's been online has at least a couple of those lying around. Hence, the scary 91% number.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.