After having launched the Securing Our eCity campaign (www.securingourecity.org) in San Diego, ESET is taking cyber security education to Austin Texas. ESET will be offering free educational seminars about cyber security in Austin.
ESET recently commissioned a survey of 551 residents of Austin, Texas. 24% of the people interviewed reported that they or someone they knew had been a victim of cybercrime. 38% of those who had been a victim or knew someone who had been a victim of cyber crime estimated that the loss was in excess of $1,000. When ESET commissioned a similar poll for the US a few months ago we found that only 5.3% of the people reported estimated losses at over $1,000. In our national survey, 57% of users reported using online banking. In Austin 71% of users reported using online banking or bill paying. Nationally we saw reported use of antivirus at 89.4% and in Austin the percentage reported was 91%. Given the margins of error in surveys this would tend to indicate that Austin is on par with the national average for antivirus use, but losses to cybercrime were reportedly significantly higher than the national average.
We did find that in Austin 40.1% of users reported using their PCs for both email and electronic tax filing. A common phishing attack involves bogus claims about tax returns and it is primetime for IRS related phishing scams right now.
In Austin 24% of users reported that they believe the internet has become less safe over the past 12 months and 22% report that they believe the internet will become less safe over the next 12 months. At the same time 11.6% of the Austin users reported that they use their computers for all of the following: email, online shopping, online banking or bill paying, buying and selling on auction sites, and filing tax returns. Of these users only 1 in four believe the internet will become safer over the next 12 months. That’s a lot of risk to be taking on a system you believe will become less safe in the next year.
So Austin, we’re looking forward to meeting you and we hope to see you at some of our free cyber security education classes! We will be at Fry’s Electronics 12707 N. Mopac Expressway, Austin, TX on Saturday March 6th at noon and again at 5 PM.
Randy Abrams
Director of Technical Education
