Net threats cost US $8.5 billion in two years

Study measures scale of scamming and other web worries.

US consumer watchdog body

Consumer Reports

have released their annual ‘State of the Net’ study, finding a noticeable decline in malware and spam issues, but still significant amounts of money lost to malware and phishing, estimated at $8.5 billion over a two-year period.

The survey covered over 2,000 online households, and found one in six of the group surveyed had been a ‘cybervictim’ during the period covered. 1 in 13 households admitted handing over sensitive data in response to email scammers, and an estimated 2.1 million computers were replaced due to malware fears.

Among other findings, SMS spam sent to cellphones has become more of an irritant to consumers, while the biggest vector for sensitive data loss was found to be the government, responsible for leaking 44 million individual consumer records.

The full report is only available to

Consumer Reports

‘ subscribers, but a summary of the findings is

here

and further commentary is at

Information Week


here

.

Posted on 05 August 2008 by

Virus Bulletin