Fergie's Tech Blog

Viruses, Spyware, Phishing Cost U.S. Consumers $7 Billion Over Two Years

Thomas Claburn writes on InformationWeek:

U.S. consumers lost $7 billion over the last two years to viruses, spyware, and phishing schemes, according to Consumer Report's latest State of the Net survey.

The survey, based on a national sample of 2,000 U.S. households with Internet access, suggests that consumers face a 25% chance of being victimized online, which represents a slight decline from last year.

Computer virus infections, reported by 38% of respondents, held steady since last year, which Consumer Reports considers to be a positive sign given the increasing sophistication of virus attacks.

Thirty-four percent of respondents' computers succumbed to spyware in the past six months. While this represents a slight decline, according to Consumer Reports, the odds of a spyware infection remain 1 in 3 and the odds of suffering serious damage from spyware are 1 in 11.

posted by Fergie @ 8/06/2007 06:39:00 PM