Majority Internet Users Have False Sense Of Security

F-Secure announced results from its annual 'Online Wellbeing Survey'. This
third-party survey of Internet users aged between 20-40 years in the US, Canada,
UK, France, Germany-and for the first time-Italy, India and Hong Kong, tested
the respondents' knowledge of online security issues (their 'security IQ').

F-Secure's annual online wellbeing survey, conducted in December 2008, shows
that over 90 percent of people have security software installed on their
computers. However, the knowledge of online threats is not as high; 71 percent
may have a false sense of security and it is a Trojan not a 'Spartan' which
presents a threat to your online security.

The majority of respondents across the countries (92 percent) said they have
security software installed on their computers. At the same time only 21 percent
of all the respondents knew that anti-virus definitions need to be updated many
times a day. This indicates that a large population of users may have a false
sense of security if their security software is expired or does not update
automatically often enough. However, 67 percent were also aware that they need
more than anti-virus to keep their PCs safe and almost 90 percent knew that they
can get infected by visiting a malicious website, even if they don't download
anything.

Sean Sullivan, Security Advisor, F-Secure Security Labs in Helsinki said,
“The fact that millions of PCs keep getting infected shows that people do not
always understand the way their security software works. The software they have
chosen may be manual and curative, rather than automatic and preventative. This
is often the difference between free and trial software, and a paid security
service, which is automatically updated.”

The results show that people rely on their security software for online
safety and secure websites to ensure the safety of their online shopping and
banking. Just over 20 percent realize that appropriate online behavior on their
own part also plays a big role. Respondents in Hong Kong and Germany were most
aware of this. Respondents in the UK were least likely to pay attention to their
own online habits to keep their devices safe. Respondents in India and Hong Kong
relied on the security software they had purchased or the security service from
their Internet Service Provider (70 percent in India, 50 percent in Hong Kong).
Those surveyed in the US had the least confi­dence in purchased software but
rather relied on secure websites. In France, respondents relied more on the
security of their online shopping and banking websites than their software.

When asked which concept in a list (worms, phishers, Trojans, Spartans, bots)
did not refer to an Internet security threat, 40 percent answered that they
didn't know. Germany had the highest percentage of respondents (54 percent) who
answered correctly that 'Spartans' are not concept in any way related to online
security. The second savviest respondents were from Canada (38 percent). Only
four percent of respondents in Hong Kong knew that 'Spartans' are not
threatening.

The survey was carried out by independent third-party Zoomerang in December
2008 across 2019 Internet users aged 20-40 in the United States, Canada, France,
Germany, UK, Italy, India and Hong Kong. There were approximately 200 persons
surveyed per country. F-Secure asked respon­dents a series of basic online
security questions and, using a Likert scale, asked them to rate the extent to
which they were confident in the security of given online activities.

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