Firewall? What firewall?

Most American computer users think they are protected from invasion by intruders, but the reality is quite different. A survey of 3,000 Americans by the National Cybersecurity Alliance found that 81 percent claimed to have installed a firewall, but manual scans of computers showed that only 58 percent actually had the software installed, enabled and up-to-date. In addition, 75 percent thought they had anti-spam software installed, but only 42 actually had updated versions.

The survey also found that nearly 50 percent didn't know how to determine whether a website was safe, and the same percentage had difficulty separating high- from low-risk websites in search results.

Adam Rak, senior director of public affairs at security software vendor Symantec, told nextgov.com that it is essential to bringing people up to speed about the latest threats. "We have to beat the drum. We're never going to solve the problem of [cyber threats], but we can reduce the risk," he said.

For more on the importance of firewalls:
- check out this nextgov.com article