A survey by the Hamburg market-research institute Earsandeyes reports that 41 percent of Internet users have already had problems with computer viruses.
Out of 1,341 users questioned in the study, 28 percent reported experiencing at least one virus on their PCs; 11 percent said they had found a so-called "trojan" and 7 percent reported that their computers had suffered damage through an unidentified source.
Earsandeyes found that 64 percent of the respondents protect their computers with virus scanners, and 12 percent use two or more anti-virus programs.
Another popular safety measure involves never opening e-mails attachments from unknown correspondents (59 percent). Around a third of surfers say they exercise care in downloading programs from the Net.
Older users are more careful when using the Internet, it seems. While 45 percent of 14 to 29-years reported having had at least one infection on their computers, among the 30 to 49-year-olds the proportion was just 37 percent.
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