世論 What Japan Thinks

There’s nothing really startlingly new from this recent survey into security software from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com, but I’ll translate it anyway.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 15th of June 2009 1,083 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their tweens, 18.4% in their twenties, 20.9% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

In Q2, it would have been useful to know if any of the people with viruses got them despite having virus software installed.

In Q2SQ, it’s interesting that so many used free software to remove the infection - I wonder how many only discovered they were infected when the bot scanner from Windows Update ran? You may wish to cross-reference this with another survey earlier this year that discovered a large number of people pay for security software.
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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.
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I’ve covered the darker side of file-sharing through P2P software a few times on this blog, but this is the first time for me to look at file forwarding services, a survey conducted by iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 6th of April 2009 300 member of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.7% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their twenties, 33.7% in their thirties, 32.3% in their forties, 13.0% in their fifties, and 4.3% in their sixties.

I used to use XDrive for a bit, but recently I’ve had no reason to transfer a large amount of data, although if I did I’d probably just upload it to this site and pass the URL across. Our company has an internal system for large file sharing via email, but it is quirky to say the least and seems more like… ahh, I’m very tired and in rather poor humour tonight so I’d better not finish that thought just in case my boss is reading.

Looking a Q1SQ1 and Q1SQ3, 24 people have used free file forwarding services for sending files to people, but 38 people have used free file forwarding services for any purpose. Sadly there is no information about what the other 14 people were doing with such services.

I’ve never heard of any of the Japanese services before!
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Although I was at a loss to explain why a previous survey was young women only, it is quite obvious why this survey from iBridge Research Plus, reported on by japan.internet.com, on online shopping payment methods focused on the fairer sex.

Demographics

On the 16th of March 2009 300 female members of the iBridge research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 21.3% of the sample were in their twenties, 41.7% in their thirties, 25.7% in their forties, 9.0% in their fifties, and 2.3% in their sixties.

One of the more popular payment methods in the west is surely PayPal, so from my point of view the omission is glaring. Yahoo! Wallet is available in the USA also, and it seems to be mostly a proxy for your own credit card, so your credit card information is held only by Yahoo!, not the merchants and shops that support Yahoo! Wallet, so it should be more secure.
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I would recommend free security software to most people, but the tone of this recent survey conducted by Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into free security software seems very much to be taking a sceptical view of free.

Demographics

Between the 27th of February and the 2nd of March 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 14.7% in their fifties, and 5.3% aged sixty or older.

My misgivings about paid-for security software is that they tend to get bloated as time goes on, providing far more features than the average person really needs in an attempt to justify their need for subscription fees. My personal free security recommendations are Avast anti-virus and Spybot Search and Destroy spyware removal, useful if you have a family member who downloads toolbars and desktop widgets of dubious origins.
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After the Second World War an undecided territorial issue between the USSR/Russia and Japan was the fate of the four most southern of the Northern Territories, as they are known in Japan, or the Kuril Isles to the Russians. This survey from the Cabinet Office Japan (so obviously there is an inherent bias towards the official government position) looked at what the Japanese think about the Northern Territories issue.

Demographics

3,000 members of the public aged 20 or over were randomly selected for face-to-face interviews between the 9th and 19th of October 2008. 1,826 people, or 60.9%, agreed to take part. Sex and age demographics were not given, but since Cabinet Office surveys are conducted face-to-face they tend to catch an older demographic.

As background on the issue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a pamphlet describing the Japanese position, Gregory Clarke wrote an article on this for the Japan Times a few years ago, and Russia Today looked at the new Japanese curriculum that will start teaching that the isles are Japanese.
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With the Winny file sharing program being the main vector for data loss (that we hear of, anyway) in Japan, what about another way, through careless use of removable media at work? This was the topic of a recent survey by Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 19th of September 2008 300 members of the Marsh monitor group employed in either the public or private sector completed an internet-based private questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, and 20:20:20:20:20 by age split between those in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and aged sixty or older.

Company confidentiality prevents me talking about any data loss issues that may or may not have happened, but we have recently introduced draconian policies for handling writable media that has resulted in us throwing out almost everything from floppy disks to memory sticks as part of a media traceability scheme. The biggest bummer personally is that I am no longer allowed to take my mobile phone into my office (I work in a high-security level area) so I do get a bit lonely during the day.
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This recent survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into Windows security - “an oxymoron!” I hear you all yell - showed that the Japanese too are well aware of Microsoft’s reputation in this regard.

Demographics

Over the 11th and 12th of September 2008 300 home computer-using members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female and 20:20:20:20:20 between people in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, and sixty and overs.

In Q1 the survey is referring to Internet Explorer security settings - the Settings dialog from Explorer, then the Security tab, and then the slider at the bottom for the strength of the security checks. However, Q1SQ then talks about firewalls, which is not part of the security settings! I also find 65.9% of people using a pop-up blocker hard to believe, unless the figure was obtained primarily from people reading the settings straight out of the said security dialog box.

Adding up Q2 and Q2SQ results, just about one in four of all Windows users are actively checking for security holes at least once a week!
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Surprisingly high levels of data security were uncovered in this recent survey from Marsh Inc and reported by japan.internet.com into computer backups.

Demographics

Over the 18th and 19th of August 2008 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were male, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

I haven’t backed-up for ages and ages, although the wife pesters me to do it weekly or so. Hopefully now that we have our new PC with a DVD-R I can set up a regular schedule. Can anyone recommend good software for that? Talking of backups, I don’t do it for the blog either…

I’m surprised, however, at the numbers who do back up, and perhaps in the full survey we would find answers to questions like why did they start backing up, have they ever had to restore, and did the backups restore correctly.
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I’m back from holidays, so normal service will be resumed from today. To kick things off, here’s one from JR Tokai Express Research Inc and published by japan.internet.com looking into P2P (peer to peer) file-sharing software.

Demographics

On the 29th of July 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor panel employed in public or private industry completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 73.6% of the sample were male, 8.8% in their twenties, 36.4% in their thirties, 41.2% in their forties, and 13.6% in their fifties. The Japanese text said in one place it was only those in private industry interviewed, but in another that it was both public and private; and in one place people from their twenties to sixties, but the percentage breakdown did not mention anything about people in their sixties…

In Q2, one category that is omitted is legitimate software, either shareware or Linux and other GPLed contents.

My fingers are still jet-lagged, so I cannot type too much extra comment tonight…
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