India surpasses U.S. and Japan in PC security, finds McAfee survey

McAfee has released a world PC security report after conducting a survey on 24 countries across the globe. The survey results reveal that India may have low PC penetration, but it is ahead of leading nations, like Japan and U.S, in terms of PC security. This survey was conducted by analyzing the data from voluntary scans on an average 27-28 million PCs per month to determine the estimate of the number of consumers with basic security worldwide. Here, basic security means a working anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall installed on a PC. According to the survey, Finland grabbed the top spot for basic security solution with 90.3 percent , followed by Italty and Germany with 86.2 percent and 85.55 percent, respectively. India takes the 14th position with 82.67 percent and China appears three steps lower at 17th place with 82 percent, followed by Japan, U.S and Singapore.

India better than U.S and Japan in PC security

On the other hand, one can also say that since India has a lower PC penetration compared to nations like the U.S. and Japan, it could have a large number of protected PCs comparatively. McAfee Co-President Todd Gebhart said, “It’s gratifying to see that the majority of consumers have gotten the message that at the very least they need to have basic security protection installed. Protecting digital devices against cybercrime from malware not only benefits each of us personally, but also serves to discourage illicit activity and preserve the integrity of the Internet.”

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MacAfee points out at the increasing number of cyber attacks and how such attacks cause massive losses to consumers, especially in cases of government firms, banks, e-commerce sites and so on. Some other key findings of the report indicated that 83 percent of consumers had ‘working basic security protection’ across the globe and 17 percent PCs were either found without any anti-virus installed, or the software was installed and then disabled. In the countries that were found to have no security solution in place feature Spain at the top of the list with 16.3 percent, followed by Japan and China at 13.2 percent and 12.9 percent, respectively. India takes the 10th spot as 10.9 percent of the PCs scanned in India did not have a security solution, their position is tied with Netherlands.

The study also says that usually people install the trial version and do not realize that once the trial period is over, one has to subscribe to the paid version. Some also disable their PC security on purpose if it is causing hindrance to playing online games. Further, the report suggests that a security software is the best defense aginst against cyber crime.