Title: Tens of millions still opening junk e-mail
In this day and era of technological advancement and digital lifestyles, it is incredible that nearly half of a surveyed audience opened junk e-mail (aka spam), intentionally.
According to an Ipsos Public Affairs Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) survey report (PDF), tens of millions of users continue to respond to spam in ways that could leave them vulnerable to a malware infection or bot network.
The results of that survey show that nearly 50% of the users have opened spam, clicked on a link in spam, opened a spam attachment, replied, or forwarded it--all activities that leave consumers susceptible to fraud, phishing, identity theft, and infection.
Despite the efforts of software vendors such as Symantec and Microsoft, malware and infectious botnets remain a major headache for users.
Not surprisingly, the users who tended toward riskier behavior when it comes to spam were also the most likely to have been infected with a virus. However, slightly less than half of the users thought it not very or not at all likely they would be infected.
The findings were aligned with last year's U.S. survey when 8 out of 10 respondents said they are aware of
malicious viruses that can control their computer, yet few believed they were susceptible to getting such a virus
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