Home PCs not as protected as owners think: "While 77% of the survey respondents believed they were safe from online threats, two-thirds lacked current anti-virus software and did not use any firewall protection. More than half said they did not understand the difference between the two.
Yet 84% stored personal data on their home PCs, and 72% routinely used the Internet for sensitive transactions, such as banking and medical data exchanges.
When technicians examined their PCs, they found 80% loaded with dozens of spyware programs that track the user's Web-browsing habits. Cybercrooks also have begun spreading a more invasive kind of spyware, called keystroke loggers, that steal logins and passwords as the user types them in. " [USATODAY.com]