McAfee Reveals 83% of Consumers Have Basic Security Protection Leaving 17% Unprotected

Sydney, AUSTRALIA,  May 31, 2012 – McAfee today announced that it conducted a global study, analysing data from voluntary scans of an average of 27-28 million PCs per month, to determine a global estimate of the number of consumers who have basic security software installed. The study found that 83% of consumers had working basic¹ security protection, and 17% of PCs scanned either had no anti-virus installed or the software was installed but disabled.

“It’s great to see that many Australians and New Zealanders are taking steps to secure their PCs, but around 15% of local users are still leaving themselves open to malware, data loss and identity theft,” said Michael Sentonas, CTO of McAfee APAC. “These risks can be easily avoided and we want to highlight the importance of protecting yourself online so next time we can ensure that Australia and New Zealand are at the top of the list!”

“I encourage everyone without security software to address the security risks posed to their personal devices by ensuring they protect all their devices and personal information against cybercrime with up to date security software,” said Sentonas.

Key Findings:

• 84.3% of Australian consumers have basic security protection.
• New Zealand has a higher percentage of consumers with basic security protection at 85.22% making it the country with the fourth highest protection rate of the 24 countries surveyed.
• Globally, the study found that 83% of consumers had working basic security protection. 
• 17% of PCs scanned either had no anti-virus software installed or it was installed but had expired. 
• The country with the highest percentage of PCs with basic security protection is Finland with 90.3% of its consumers protected and 9.67% unprotected.

Digital Assets Are Highly Valued; Consumers Don’t Protect Data, Devices
While security protection rates globally for PCs are reasonably high, the McAfee Digital Assets study² released in September 2011 revealed that more than a third of people (36 per cent) don’t have security protection on all of their devices and seven percent have no protection at all.

As smartphones and tablets continue to integrate more deeply into consumers’ daily lives and cybercrime targeting Macs continues to grow, protecting those devices becomes increasingly critical. Easily accessible personal data, including financial and credit card information stored on mobile devices are attractive to cybercriminals and identity thieves, and personal digital material such as photos can be virtually irreplaceable should devices be lost or stolen.

While not mainstream yet, consumers face a growing threat of mobile malware, with McAfee Labs predicting that more than one in 20 devices will be infected within the next 12 to 24 months.
 
“Today smartphone and tablet devices are outnumbering PCs,” said Sentonas. “According to the McAfee Digital Assets study, consumers worldwide value their digital assets at more than US$37,000 with Australian consumers valuing their assets at US$20,948 (AU$21,723 at the time of this study). With this in mind, we encourage consumers to extend protection from PCs to all of their digital devices and the data on them.”

The survey also revealed consumers globally say 27% of their digital files are “impossible to restore” if lost, and not backed up properly, and had an average value of $10,014 US.

McAfee makes it easier than ever for consumers to protect all of their devices with McAfee All Access, which protects all of a consumer’s digital devices for $149.95 in Australia and New Zealand. McAfee All Access is a single solution that protects consumers’ PCs, Macs, smartphones, and tablets from a variety of threats – wherever they connect. Consumers stay safe when they shop and surf on the net, visit social networks, click on online images, or use their email – no matter what device they’re using. 

Why Are Consumers Unprotected?
Some reasons that consumers don’t have security may include:

• Consumers may not be accustomed to installing their own anti-virus because security software is often pre-installed via the computer manufacturers. They may not understand that once the trial subscription expires they are no longer protected.
• Some consumers may disable their security protection on purpose, to play online games, for example.
• Some PC users believe they don’t need protection if they simply adhere to safe surfing best practices.

Consequences of Unprotected PCs
Without even basic security protection, consumers can be more vulnerable to:

• Malware infections which are difficult to remove
• Data loss – cybercriminals can steal financial credentials like user names and passwords through hidden malware such as keyloggers and exploit that information for financial gain
• Identity theft from hacker activity which can involve cybercriminals accessing a consumer’s PC and exploiting all of his or her personal information

Beyond consequences for individuals, growing cybercrime rates can impact the Internet and how we use it. Documented cases of cyber-attacks against banks, technology companies, e-stores, and government agencies are increasingly in the news and have cost those affected millions, if not billions of dollars. Many of these attacks start by exploiting unprotected or under-protected devices.

Stopping cybercrime is complex and law enforcement officials struggle with several issues:

• Internet crimes often cross international borders and laws in each country differ – if they exist at all.
• Anonymity adds another level of difficulty; hackers can hide IP addresses by routing traffic through numerous servers, for example, and that makes it difficult to track criminals.     
• Evidence gathering can also be an issue. Digital evidence is fragile, and savvy cybercriminals can even rig their computers so when certain data is accessed by outsiders, it is destroyed.

In the offline world, criminals have many obstacles – from locked doors and alarm systems on homes, businesses and office buildings to extensive law enforcement networks, but the Internet has no such defenses.  Security software is consumers’ first and, in many cases, only defense against cybercrime.

McAfee Charts of Global Security Protection Rates:
1. Ranking of Countries by Percentage of Consumers with Basic Security Protection
2. Ranking of Countries by Percentage of Consumers Unprotected (No Anti-Virus Installed or the Software was Installed, but Disabled)
3. Ranking of Countries by Percentage of Consumers With No Anti-Virus Installed
4. Ranking of Countries by Percentage of Consumers with Security Software Installed, but Disabled

1. Ranking of Countries by Percentage of Consumers with Basic Security Protection


2. Ranking of Countries by Percentage of Consumers Unprotected (No Anti-Virus Installed or the Software was Installed, but Disabled)


3. Ranking of Countries by Percentage of Consumers With No Anti-Virus Installed


4. Ranking of Countries by Percentage of Consumers with Security Software Installed, but Disabled


Methodology
Basic security protection is defined as working anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall technologies. This is the first industry study of its kind and is thought to be the most accurate snapshot of consumer PC protection to date because it actually scanned users’ PCs for protection status instead of asking consumers directly for security status.

The countries that McAfee conducted the scan in were: