Denver ranks eighth among U.S. cities as being most vulnerable to online threats, according to AVG Technologies, an Amsterdam-based computer software security provider.
The firm said that it surveyed online and mobile consumer behaviors in 35 major U.S. cities to uncover which is most likely to be “digitally duped” – including risk of fraudulent credit card charges, stolen identities, e-mail security breaches and lost personal data.
Americans, said the report, were likely to be guilty of poor mobile habits – 40 percent don’t use a password on their mobile device and of those that do, another 34 percent have not changed their password in at least a year.
It said that 75 percent don’t take active measures to back-up their phone’s data.
It also said many consumers are unknowingly putting themselves at risk of falling victim to identity thieves, viruses and malware because of bad PC habits. Of the more than 8,000 Americans with access to the Internet at home who were surveyed, 23 percent don’t back up the data on their PC, 38 percent admit to sharing online passwords with at least one person, and 41 percent never run a manual antivirus scan to ensure the computer is virus free.
The highest at-risk cities include San Antonio, Tampa, Atlanta, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Charlotte, N.C., Detroit and in eight place, Denver.Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
