Interesting story for our British readers, seems like back in Old Blighty people are a bit lax when it comes to keeping their security software up to date.

Not only that, from the other aspects of the survey it seems UK is generally lacking in cybersecurity awareness and education with people not deleting dodgy files and a large percentage of people not using any kind of protection at all.

Brits are lax at updating their security software, compared to their European counterparts, says PC Tools. Worldwide research by the security firm revealed that a third of Brits never update their security software, compared to just five percent of German and seven percent of French web users.

Nearly one in ten Brits also admitted they don’t use any form of security software when surfing the web, compared to five percent of French and four percent of Germans. The UK is also lagging behind when it comes to deleting files sent from unknown sources. Just one percent of Brits will delete files sent by email, instant messenger or social networking sites compared to two percent of French web users and nine percent of Germans.

With auto-updates and software prompting you to up date I don’t know why it’s such a big problem, I would hazard a guess that it’s to do with the lack of Broadband penetration in UK.

There’s still a huge number of people using dial-up which makes it very cumbersome to update software, especially with file sizes getting bigger and bigger.

PC Tools said that 41 percent of all respondents use just one or two passwords across all the sites they visit online, while eight percent admitted to having just one password for all their online account. Of that eight percent, over half were French, while 35 percent were Brits and just 16 percent were German.

Michael Greene, vice president of product strategy, PC Tools, said: “While consumers are generally security conscious, they are not yet security savvy. The increased use of the internet among consumers is providing a lucrative market for cybercriminals and we are seeing more and more sophisticated techniques that lure consumers into clicking on malicious links or downloading malicious files”.

Over three quarters of Brits have some form of security software installed on their PC, compared to the global average of 57 percent. Worryingly, 53 percent of Brits also said they only act on a security alert if something strikes them as particularly dangerous.

From the stats, the average for those having some kind of security software installed is trumped by the Brits – but if they don’t update isn’t it useless.

And with 41% of people using only 2 different passwords for ALL online sites..that doesn’t bode well for anyone who gets hit with a targeted attack.

Credit :: http://www.darknet.org.uk/