September 21, 2001—Despite recent virus awareness, a new survey reveals that most PC users have not changed their online security practices. The survey, conducted by Central Command, a provider of PC anti-virus software and computer security services, was e-mailed to over 750,000 PC users worldwide, with a 12% response rate.
Of the 72% of users who say they use e-mail at their workplace, 38% stated that they use an alternate Web-based e-mail account for personal reasons at work. In addition, 14% of the respondents said they open all attachments they receive at work regardless of the sender. Central Command recommends that system administrators develop strict security policies to protect their corporate networks from these types of security holes.
The results also show that 31% of respondents using Instant Messaging (IM) software have accepted and downloaded a file transfer within the last six months, with 16% of those users claiming the file transfer came from an unknown source. Because of a new trend of viruses written to exploit these IM channels, Central Command finds this statistic alarming.
Central Command was not surprised that millions of PC’s to date have already been infected (49% of respondents have been infected with a virus at some point, and over half have been infected within the last year). What did surprise them was the fact that the majority of the surveyed PC users have not changed their online activity or security practices after knowing the danger of recent threats such as CodeRed and Loveletter. Central Command feels this indicates a global weakness in the defense against cyber attacks.
41% of respondents claim to have anti-virus software installed. Of those, only 26% update their antivirus software for the newest virus threats at least monthly. Only 14% said they keep up on the latest security patches and vulnerabilities that exist today. For the complete survey results, visit Central Command.
