McAfee: Most Consumers Overestimate PC Safety

It's self-serving, but a new study by McAfee Inc. and the National Cyber Security Alliance has found that 78 percent of consumer PCs in the U.S. are not protected (defined as having up-to-date AV, spyware and a properly configured firewall).

What's interesting, though is how many people think they are protected: 93 percent according the survey, which is set to be released Monday.

"There's... a troubling perception among the vast majority of consumers that they're well protected. And they're not. " McAfee says. Translation: buy more of our products. :-)

Maybe on Monday we'll learn then what percentage of the people who are not protected *think* they're safe.

By the way, the percentage of protected computers hasn't improved much over the past two years. In 2005, the study found that 81 percent of PCs were not protected.

These are big numbers and the fact that not a lot more people are becoming protected seems to show that consumers feel they're doing all they can to be safe.