Automatic protections don’t assemble you safer online

Automatic protections don’t manufacture you safer online, MSU researchers say: Threats to online privacy and defense continue to plague Net users, and the protections from Net providers are only part of the reply, according to a national survey conducted by Michigan State University researchers. Professors Robert LaRose, division of Telecommunication, info Studies and Media, and Nora Rifon, area of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing, are co-directors of the survey sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Spam is the biggest problem, report 66 percent of World Wide Web users, followed by spyware, cited by 42 percent; computer viruses, cited by 35 percent, and dishonorable e-mail or phishing attempts, reported by 34 percent. Nineteen out of 20 users have spam and virus protection. But 15 percent of the respondents have no protection against spyware, 28 percent have no defenses against phishing, and similar numbers are unaware of spyware or phishing defenses. Three-fifths of those surveyed use at least one of the default protections from their Web provider, and a similar number update protections automatically.

However, those who use World Wide Web service provider protections or self-moving updates feel no safer than those who do not. “Those who set up their own protections regarding Web site verification receive less spam than those who rely on the Net provider’s protection and far less than those who don’t have spam protection at all. It pays to do it yourself to avoid a false sense of safety measure,” LaRose said. “People who manually activate a scan

of their system to look for updates and problems rather than letting the program automatically scan receive far fewer phishing e-mails and experience far fewer problems with spyware.” While 87 percent of the respondents feel personally responsible for online safety to some degree, 66 percent are sometimes overwhelmed by the complexity of protecting themselves, and only about one in 10 users is confident that he or she can stay safe online. Only 40 percent of World Wide Web users agree that online safety should be their sole responsibility, 74 percent assign responsibility to World Wide Web providers, 75 percent to software companies and 47 percent to the government.

And, many users still endanger themselves online by opening unexpected e-mail attachments (24 percent), clicking inside pop-ups (27 percent), clicking on hyperlinks in e-mails (64 percent), failing to read the “fine print” before downloading files (72 percent) or registering at a Web site (58 percent). Fifteen percent of the respondents post personal info or pictures of themselves on sites that could be accessible to strangers. “Clearly there is a need for continuing user education. Online safety should be a needed part of every computer literacy course,” Rifon said. The survey was completed by 557 home Web users contacted by phone in November and December of 2006. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent. The fieldwork was completed by Schulman, Ronca, and Bucuvalas Inc. of Silver Spring, Md. Additional results can be found online at www.msu.edu/~isafety.