Vast Majority of Americans Feel Safe Online

The poll, conducted by Zogby International, finds that 88 percent of Internet users feel safe when using personal computers to access the Internet. Furthermore, 84 percent agree that they have the information and tools needed to make good decisions to protect their privacy and security online.

"What we have here is an Internet security paradox," said Maxim Weinstein, who manages the StopBadware.org team at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. "Americans see themselves as safe online, even as we see an ongoing trend of organized criminal elements using the Internet to target unsuspecting users." Weinstein will testify at the Federal Trade Commission on April 1 about how to better educate users about the dangers of phishing, a deceptive practice responsible for $2.1 billion in identity theft damages last year, according to Consumer Reports.

The Internet security paradox transcends geography, age, politics, and gender. Across virtually all socio-economic lines, the vast majority of Americans agree that they feel safe online and able to protect their privacy and security. Zogby polled 6,678 Americans in February, with a 1.2 percent margin of error.

Young Americans are particularly confident about their online presence. Nearly 50 percent under 30 express being very safe online, compared to just 25 percent of those 65 years and older who shared the level of agreement. "Young people who have grown up in a digital society treat the Internet as part of their world, not as a separate entity with different rules from the physical world," said John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center and co-author of the forthcoming Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. "To digital natives, asking if they feel safe online is akin to asking if they feel safe in their own community."

Why the Internet security paradox? As the number of Americans using the Internet increases each year, so does their sense of trust with their online presence. Seven in 10 Americans are Internet users, up from just 15 percent in 1995. Sixty percent say they are not worried about how much information is available about them online, and 61 percent of adult users do not feel compelled to limit their digital footprint, found the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

With rising Internet usage and trust comes a false sense of security, as threats remain widespread. Thousands of U.S. Internet users have money stolen from their personal accounts each month, with overall damages totaling $2.1 billion last year, according to the Consumer Reports National Research Center State of the Net Survey. The same survey found that spyware prompted 850,000 U.S. households to replace their computers and inflicted damages totaling $1.7 billion in 2007.

Just 24 percent of Americans have taken adequate steps to protect themselves by installing a firewall and updating anti-virus and anti-spyware software on a regular basis, McAfee and the National Cyber Security Alliance recently found.

About StopBadware.org

StopBadware.org is a partnership between top academic institutions, technology industry leaders, and volunteers committed to protecting Internet users from threats to their privacy and security caused by bad software. StopBadware.org is led by Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Oxford University's Oxford Internet Institute. Consumer Reports WebWatch serves as an unpaid special advisor. The initiative is supported by Google, PayPal, Lenovo, AOL, Trend Micro, and VeriSign. For more information, please visit http://www.stopbadware.org.