PEBKAC Still Plagues PC Security

Billosaur writes "ARS Technica is reporting on a study release by McAfee and the National Cyber Security Alliance (as part of the beginning of National Cyber Security Awareness Month) that suggests when it comes to PC security, the problem between the keyboard and the chair is even worse. PEBKAC has always been a problem, but the study highlights just how prevalent it has become. 87 percent of the users contacted said they used anti-virus software, while 70 percent use anti-spyware software. Fewer (64 percent) reported having their firewalls turned on, and only 27 percent use software designed to stop phishing attempts. Researchers were allowed to scan the computers of a subset of the users, and while 70 percent claimed to be using anti-spyware software, only 55 percent of the machines of those users scanned showed evidence of the software."

Comments

And the solution is...

[It doesn't come easy]

I use Avast free home edition anti-virus program and that's it. No firewall (and I turn off the "firewall" that comes with XP) and no anti-spyware programs. And in more than 3 years I have had zero malware of any sort on my computers running XP.

The secret of my success is that I also don't use Internet Explorer (except for the Windows Update website, cause Microsoft makes me). That one step protects me from >95% of the malware. The other 5% is handled by Avast and Firefox. And I don't download and install "free" programs and games.

Boycott Internet Explorer (and all of the loss of security, privacy, and control of your own computer that goes with it), use Firefox and a good anti-virus program, and don't do stupid things on the net and you're golden.

Re:it is not a user fault

[big_paul76]

Here here.

In WWII, they had frequent aircraft crashes caused by pilots landing with the gear up.

They consistently attributed these accidents to "pilot error".

Then somebody took a look at the design of the cockpit, and realized that it wasn't designed in a way that would make it immediately obvious to a pilot whether or not the gear was up or down. When the cockpit was re-designed, the high rate of 'gear up' landings evaporated.

In other words, the designers were blaming the users for a design flaw. Happens all the time in the software industry these days.

I'm not saying that PEBKAC errors don't happen, or that idiots don't do stupid things. But I suspect that a large slice of the cases we classify as "user error" should really be called design error.