One would think by now that personal computer owners would understand the dangers of operating their PCs without installing some type of antivirus software.

However, the latest research by security software company McAfee finds that nearly 17 percent of the world is browsing the internet completely unprotected.

Here in the US, somewhere around 20 percent of the population is operating their PCs either without antivirus protection or with disabled or expired software — a number that falls just behind countries like Singapore, Mexico, Spain and Japan.

The people of Finland are the most protected, with just under 10 percent of PCs lacking defense against computer viruses. Singapore has the dubious distinction of being the most unprotected nation, with 21.75% of people not having any safeguard.

According to McAfee, “The United States is the fifth least protected country, with 19.32 percent of Americans browsing the internet without any protection; 12.25 percent of consumers have zero security protection installed; 7.07 percent have security software installed but disabled.

The research by McAfee was compiled by scanning 28 million computers every month over the course of the last year. The company says the new data conflicts with a survey they did last fall where consumers claimed that their digital assets had an average value of around $10,000 and were “impossible to restore” if lost.

The Worlds Most Unprotected PCs

1. Singapore­

2.
Mexico

3.
Spain

4.
Japan

5.
United States

6.
Canada

7.
China

8.
Ireland

9.
Korea

10.
India

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