People Feel Safer on a PC Than on a Mobile Device

Most people feel safer on a PC than on a mobile device even though they don’t use full security software. Most people polled felt the internet isn’t as safe as it was a year ago but, despite that, still practiced unsafe surfing habits. Risky, unprotected habits? Yeah, that sounds like your average internet user.

A majority 87 percent of people polled for a new study think their home PCs offer better defense against viruses, malware, and hackers than do their mobile phones. Released today by the National Cyber Security Alliance and Symantec, the study (PDF) also discovered that people may be overconfident in the power of their computers to protect them as less than half are using full security software.

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what about [H]ardocp users? we should do a poll.

I wouldn't say I feel safer, but I do feel more comfortable on a full system than my blackberry. Then again with no flash etc, mobile browsers give me less options to screw up.

This smells too much like an attempt for Symantec and who ever else to push antivirus products for smartphones.

If you really need antivirus for a personal computer than you should stop downloading shady cracked programs and games and stop surfing pr0n without adblock and noscript.

Oh, malware and hackers. I thought it was because people on cell phones were more likely to be saying "someone is following me" into them.

It isn't that I feel safer on a mobile vs PC, its more a matter of where I connect and how. I don't feel safe on any public network.

Given that I fix peoples virus ridden machines all day everyday, I would agree to this. However I think it should say "People have ZERO fear about clicking random stupid links on their PC and not their phone" instead. In my world it isn't people feeling safer, it is people not caring in the least.

Deviationer said:

This smells too much like an attempt for Symantec and who ever else to push antivirus products for smartphones.

If you really need antivirus for a personal computer than you should stop downloading shady cracked programs and games and stop surfing pr0n without adblock and noscript.

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Since you just demonstrated that a lot of people still don't get it, just surfing normal sites will not save you anymore. Did you not hear about the various well known sites that had compromised ads last year, or for a recent example hear about how the Nobel Peace Prize site was compromised earlier this week. A lot of people do not run adblock and noscript at all times, and others do not because they don't want to be inconvenienced. AV is a good way to at least detect things you haven't accounted for like compromised sites.

Ryokurin said:

Since you just demonstrated that a lot of people still don't get it, just surfing normal sites will not save you anymore. Did you not hear about the various well known sites that had compromised ads last year, or for a recent example hear about how the Nobel Peace Prize site was compromised earlier this week. A lot of people do not run adblock and noscript at all times, and others do not because they don't want to be inconvenienced. AV is a good way to at least detect things you haven't accounted for like compromised sites.

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I had a HDD crash in a RAID 0 array and was quickly trying to get a fresh install up and running. I was on download.com getting WinRAR and only halfway looking clicked the top link on the search results. Again, multi-tasking on several installs I didn't pay too much attention and ran the installer, at which point my computer exploded into chinese characters and all kinds of other fun popups.

Turns out CNet's Download.com puts sponsored ads at the top of search results so that they closely resemble the actual returned search list. Nothing new, but again in a hurry I didn't notice it. In this case, an AV would have saved me from yet another fresh install.

Maybe not the best example as it required end-user (that's me!) stupidity; but if you are on a trusted site, not giving it your full attention I think the same could happen to many others who frequent the [H].

I feel pretty safe on both, frankly. Hard for me to give the nod to one or the other.

Ryokurin said:

Since you just demonstrated that a lot of people still don't get it, just surfing normal sites will not save you anymore. Did you not hear about the various well known sites that had compromised ads last year, or for a recent example hear about how the Nobel Peace Prize site was compromised earlier this week. A lot of people do not run adblock and noscript at all times, and others do not because they don't want to be inconvenienced. AV is a good way to at least detect things you haven't accounted for like compromised sites.

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yup... picking and choosing 'good' websites is old hat. It's within everyones best interest to always run an AV/firewall and a script blocker regardless of OS and browser. There have been far too many compromised 'legitimate' websites lately to take security for granted anymore