LONDON, UK – According to a press release issued yesterday by anti-spyware developer Webroot Software, Inc., males aged 18 – 29 are at the highest risk of being infected with spyware, due in large part to unsafe surfing habits.In conjunction with the market research firm GMI, Webroot surveyed over 600 UK respondents and found that “young men are significantly more likely to be infected with spyware than their female counterparts,” the release states.

“The likelihood of infection was increased by the risky online behaviour of young males,” the release states “such as opening instant messages (66-percent), downloading files (65-percent), and visiting adult entertainment sites (56-percent).”

Women in the same age range reported that their web browsing features far fewer unsafe habits, with over “91-percent stating they had never visited an adult entertainment site and 61-percent had never clicked on pop-up ads,” according to the release.

“The chances of becoming infected with spyware rapidly increase when performing certain online behaviour, such as visiting adult entertainment sites or social networking sites such as MySpace.com, “ asserted David Moll, CEO of Webroot. “These sites have become a breeding ground for spyware.”

The survey comes shortly after a recent “State of Spyware” published by Webroot found “Britain to have the highest spyware infection rate within the EU,” the release states.

“With an average of 30.5 pieces of spyware detected on every consumer PC and 89-percent of consumer PCs infected with some form of spyware, this is clearly a major threat to every user,” Webroot states in its release.

Some media reports have focused on the porn surfing of British males as the primary source of infection, although the Webroot release cites opening of email attachments, use of IM and surfing of social networking sites as other areas in which male surfers are purportedly more likely to dabble and does not provide any manner of insight into what percentage of threats come from which of those sources.

It’s also unclear from the Webroot release how the survey population was selected and whether that selection was random; if the population pool was not selected at random, the poll is not scientific and the margin of error cannot be calculated

Assuming that the population pool was selected at random, the margin of error for the survey is somewhere below 4.08-percent (the percentage depends on how many “more than 600” respondents there were).

The release also does not state what percentage of respondents were male vs. female, meaning that it is unclear whether the margin of error is the same for male and female respondents within the survey.
Whatever Webroot survey’s methodology, the company’s conclusions regarding safe web use line up with the recommendations of other experts in the field of cyber-security.

“Spyware education is a key element to keeping this threat in check,” Daniel Mothersdale, EMEA Director of Marketing for Webroot said in the release.

“Webroot is committed to public education and awareness on this topic. We offer online webinars, the State of Spyware report, and an online spyware scan available for free on our website for users interested in learning more about how to stay safe from spyware.”

The Webroot press release can be found here:
http://sourcewire.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=27686

More information is available at www.webroot.com.