October is Cyber Security (Un)Awareness Month

October is Cyber Security Awareness Month, and it seems many people are in need of some serious awareness-raising on this front. A recent survey indicates that while more than 80 percent of computer users thought they had firewall software installed, follow-up inspections found that only half of those users actually had the software installed or running on their PCs. The data comes from a poll of 3,000 Americans conducted by Zogby International, with security vendor Symantec conducting follow-up manual computer scans on computers belonging to 400 of those surveyed. While the study suggests that Americans seem to be well aware of whether they have up-to-date anti-spyware and anti-virus software installed, only 52 percent had anti-spam filters set up, even though 75 percent thought they did, Symantec found. Fifty-one percent of those surveyed said they had been targeted by a phishing attack, a scam that uses spoofed e-mail to lure recipients

October is Cyber Security (Un)Awareness Month