The online threats associated with using the Internet remain high according to Consumer Reports’s latest “State of the Net” survey. Consumer Reports projects that U.S. consumers lost more than $7 billion over the last two years to viruses, spyware, and phishing schemes.
Additionally, the “State of the Net” survey shows that consumers face a 1 in 4 chance of succumbing to an online threat and becoming a cybervictim, a number that has slightly decreased since last year.
The number of consumers responding to e-mail phishing scams has remained constant at eight percent. Consumer Reports projects that one million U.S. consumers lost billions of dollars over the past two years to such scams.
Based on the survey, Consumer Reports projects that problems caused by viruses and spyware resulted in damages of at least $5 billion replacement over the past two years.
The 2007 “State of the Net” survey was conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center among a nationally representative sample of more than 2,000 households with Internet access.
Originally posted on August 6, 2007 @ 10:52 pm