Latest Internet Confidence and Safety Survey results

Trend Micro’s Internet Confidence and Safety survey analyzes consumer perception regarding a number of Internet-related concerns such as how safe and confident consumers feel when using the Internet, their view regarding the future safety of the Internet, how many consumers have experienced actual infections during the past six months, their confidence in their security software and an analysis of their online internet activities. Additionally the research includes a measure of consumer perception around security related to mobile phone Internet usage.

According to the survey, 51% are not confident that their Internet security software is protecting their system.

This could mean that vendors have failed to effectively communicate to their customers that they are in fact insecure. In order for customers to truly know how secure they are their vendors must provide them with answers to the following questions:

*Where is this malicious code coming from?
*How quickly can you tell me about it?
*How well am I protected?

The survey also found that a vast majority of consumers still participate in risky online behavior such as online banking, using credit cards to make purchases, and downloading freeware/shareware. These results indicate that customer perceptions about how secure they are may be tied to the fact that they don’t have answers to these three fundamental questions and could be the reason why they are still participating in risky behavior — they think they are adequately protected when in fact, they are not.

Other noteworthy findings, from the countries and issues section of the September 2006 Internet Confidence and Safety survey include:

*71 percent of Japanese respondents believed they have not been infected by malware in the last six months yet only 24% of them were confident that their Internet Security solution was effectively protecting them.

*In the US, 51 percent of respondents view the Internet as currently being “very safe” but that number drops dramatically to 32% when respondents were asked if they think the internet will be more or less safe in six months.

*Similarly, in Germany, 43% believe the Internet to be “very safe” but that number drops to 24% when asked about the safety of the Internet in six months.

*67% of respondents in Japan admit to using freeware/shareware programs, compared with only 63% in Germany, 62% in France, 44% in the UK, and 43% in the US.