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The past couple of months have seen the web come under attack in a series of high profile security breaches, and if there's a silver lining to it all, it's that the attacks have made PC security a hot topic. Turns out it's a much needed one, not just for corporations, but for end users as well. According to a new survey by G Data, users have a lot to learn when it comes to malware and taking proper security measures.
G Data's Security Survey 2011 (PDF) set out to discover how well informed Internet users are about the genuine threats in cyberspace, the perpetrators' methods, whether younger or older users are more astute in terms of IT security, and handful of other related questions. Here are some of the key findings of G Data's online survey of 15,559 Internet users in eleven countries between the ages of 18 to 65:
So far there's not much to criticize, not unless you want to argue whether or not free AV software can be as effective as paid security suites. However, here are some of the more concerning key findings:
The lengthy report goes on to list several malware myths that, according to the survey results, show "Americans are dangerously out-of-touch with the sophistication of today's threat landscape."
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Slugbait
June 27, 2011 at 12:30pm
"Only 4 percent of survey respondents are running unprotected PCs...So far there's not much to criticize"
Assuming a margin of error +/- 2%, 4 percent represents tens of millions of machines. This is a target-rich environment for compromise. These are the Idiots of the Internet who allow botnets to be so simplistic to create, and be so lethal and efficient, among other uses by nefarious folk. Not saying the "protected" machines aren't compromised, because a large percentage of them are...but we can probably assume the majority of that unprotected group is compromised in some way, and they made it too easy.
A one digit number looks nice on paper, but it has to correlate to actual physical numbers. I wouldn't say "Only 4 percent". I would say, "A whopping 4 percent".
newegg911
June 27, 2011 at 11:47am
Although I like ease of use as much as anyone else, I kind of miss the old days when you being an idiot and operating a computer were mutually exclusive. While setting jumpers and configuring IRQ's and whatnot could be a PITA it kept the derps away.
Morete
June 27, 2011 at 11:22am
G Data wins a lot of top international awards and rightly so. This German corporation is usually on top of things when it comes to safe internet security. I used to run G Data in the past, but unfortunatly their greatest downfall is that it's a resource hog. Running two engines (A and B), at the same time without drastically reducing PC performance is not their forte.
Clicking on URLs may be the most common way of getting malware for the end user, but another common way that many people are unaware of are Port Scans, IP address scans and DNS scans. If hackers can obtain your IP address (visiting a web page or public program client), they can scan for open and available ports. G Data has an excellent intrusion detection Firewall. It names the IP of the intruder and the actual client name that is asssociated with that IP, with a date and time stamp and which port(s) it tried to access. While some of the intruders IPs may be spoofed IPs, it still allows the end user to be aware of who and what is trying to access their PC.
