世論 What Japan Thinks

With stories almost every week about a new bot network or browser exploit threatening Western civilisation, the need for not just straightforward virus-checking, but regular spyware and malware scanning, is as great as ever. This recent survey from MyVoice was their second look (I missed the first!) at computer security.

Demographics

Over the first five days of April 2009 15,682 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 15% in their twenties, 36% in their thirties, 29% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.

In the English-speaking world I could see a product named “Internet Security Zero” selling absolutely zero copies, but it’s not the first and won’t be the last product to misappropriate some English, with beer manufacturers being the worst with “Off”, “Style Free”, and “Lets Beer Nothing”, although I may have invented that last brand.

As I mention every survey, a combination of Avast anti-virus and Spybot Search and Destroy will keep your PC clean for free, and are a lot less obtrusive and memory-hogging than the commercial offerings. MalwareBytes is another program I’ve heard good things about for detecting nasties, but I’ve used it just once or twice.

Research results

Q1: About how often do you usually use your computer at home? (Sample size=15,682)

Just about every day	86.6%
Four or five days a week	6.4%
Two or three days a week	4.2%
One day a week	1.3%
Two or three days a month	0.5%
One day a month or less	0.3%
Have a computer at home but don’t use it	0.7%

This doesn’t seem to cover people with no home computer.

Q2: Have you ever had a virus on your home computer? (Sample size=home computer users)

Got infected by a virus	21.9%
Discovered a virus but didn’t get infected	33.8%
Never been infected nor discovered a virus	33.1%
Don’t really know	10.7%
No answer	0.6%

Q3: Do you use security software on your home computer? (Sample size=home computer users)

Currently using it (to SQ1)	80.3%
Used to use it, but now don’t (to SQ2)	9.2%
Never used it (to SQ2)	5.2%
Don’t know whether I’ve used it	4.7%
No answer	0.5%

Q3SQ1: What security software do you use the most on your home computer? (Sample size=security software users)

Virus Buster (PcCillin)	30.1%
Norton Internet Security	19.2%
Virus Security Zero	12.6%
McAfee Internet Security	8.5%
AVG Internet Security	4.3%
Kingsoft Internet Scurity	2.8%
Kaspersky Internet Security	1.5%
ESET Smart Security	1.4%
Windows Live OneCare	0.5%
F-Secure Internet Security	0.2%
Virus Barrier	0.1%
CA Internet Security Suite	0.1%
G DATA Internet Security	0.1%
Other	12.8%
Don’t know	5.5%
No answer	0.2%

Q3SQ2: Why don’t you use security software on your home computer? (Sample size=security software non-users, multiple answer)

Bothersome to update, upgrade (free or paid), etc	32.2%
Security software is expensive	25.1%
Computer slows down if I load security software	24.1%
Use virus prevention methods other than security software	11.1%
Just don’t think I’ll get infected with a virus	10.3%
Don’t know how to use security software	6.3%
Disconnect from the internet when I’m not using it	4.5%
Did use security software but had problems other than virus infection	3.7%
Don’t think security software is effective	3.3%
Did use security software before but still got a virus infection	2.1%
Other	9.5%
No particular reason	15.2%
No answer	3.6%