A new study from the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and America Online (AOL) paints a dire picture of the state of security in the land of the home PC. AOL and NCSA surveyed 329 dial-up and broadband users recently to get a good look at the true state of security on the internet. The results were not pretty. While 77 percent of the users surveyed felt fairly confident they could withstand a security intrusion from the internet, over half did not know what a firewall was. This survey is even more interesting because researchers also inspected the users’ computers. When their computers were checked, the results were even more staggering. Nearly 80 percent of the PCs were infected with some form of spyware or adware. The average user had 93 spyware/adware installations, while one computer was running (barely) with more than 1,000. On the virus front, 67 percent of the users had outdated anti-virus software and 15 percent had no anti-virus software at all. Commenting on the survey, Ken Watson, chairman of the SCSA, said, “Extrapolating the percentages in our survey, this indicates that millions of Americans are at risk – and are already infected – by viruses, spyware and adware.” It is not a pretty picture, but if you’re feeling a bit smug behind your company’s firewall and virtual private network, think again. IBM plans to release monthly network computer threat reports. According to IBM, the company routinely detects 100 million suspected or actual attacks against IBM customers each month. Both reports add fuel to the debate about who has responsibility for maintaining security on the Internet – technology companies involved in the internet or consumers. This study makes one thing clear – what we are doing today is not working. Technology Industry