Survey Shows That One-Fourth Of American Are Victims Of Data Breaches
I know from my days as a computer tech that everyone will tell you that they do everything they can to make their machines, and their data, safe but in practice very few do. Whether it be by using brain-dead passwords, not keeping their systems up to date with all the patches, or even in more cases than I care to count, turning off their antivirus software for whatever reason; people lose interest in being safe on the web.
This simple fact is what a recent survey done by McAfee and the National Cyber Security Alliance found and really the results paint a pretty sad picture when it comes to computer safety and our own data.
While the survey found that 90 percent of Americans agree that it is important to have a safe and secure Internet some of the data points they discovered along with that are troublesome to say the least:
- 64% of those surveyed have never installed any security software or apps to protect against viruses or malware
- While 48% of smartphone users use their device to access the web 58% of those users have never backed up their data
From Gary Davis, vice president of global consumer marketing at McAfee
“The threat to the safety of Americans online is growing every day and, as the survey shows, the fear of Americans has also grown to 90 percent,”
“It is our responsibility to make sure that consumers are aware of these growing threats, so they can be best prepared to defend themselves against these hidden criminals.”
via Phys.org
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About the Author
Steven Hodson Steven has been around the tech world long enough to see most of the stuff we think of cool happen before which leads to a certain bit of cynicism that has contributed to him being known as the cranky old fart of the Internet. Besides sharing some of the goodness that he finds with you here at 42x you can also find him curating some digital goodness at Winextra (tech type stuff) and Rotten Gumdrops (for your daily dose of WTF).
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