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Computer viruses hit 50pc of Dutch users

1 May 2003

AMSTERDAM — Half of all Internet users in the Netherlands have had to deal at least once with a computer virus, meaning 35 percent of all Dutch people aged 16 and above have been confronted by a computer virus.

Some 57 percent of people aged 16 and over now use the Internet at least weekly, a significant increase on 2002 when 51 percent were Internet users, according to Amsterdam-based market research organisation NFO Trendbox.

Trendbox has carried out regular surveys of Internet use in the Netherlands since 1995. The company says that the continued growth in Internet use is mainly due to an increasing number of men going online. In total, 71 percent of Dutch men have clicked onto the World Wide Web.

  
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But alongside the positive trends in Internet use, Trendbox says that negative aspects — such as computer viruses spread online — are an increasing phenomenon. Half of all Dutch Internet users have received a virus via the web, amounting to 35 percent of all Dutch people aged 16 and above.

Trendbox's Gerton Poot said on Thursday that this has led to users becoming wary of the medium.

"Seventeen percent of online Dutch people do not dare to complete certain transactions over the Internet out of fear for viruses," Poot said.

"Fifty-three percent of this group don't dare to open emails from unknown senders. Some 21 percent worry about downloading computer programmes and 19 percent do not dare anymore to download any files."

Poot said nine percent of people polled said Internet banking was too risky, but the popularity of online banking continues to grow in the Netherlands. In 2003, some 36 percent of Dutch people bank online, up from 31 percent in October 2002.

Interestingly, some 87 percent of people hit by computer viruses received them via a computer in their home, while 36 percent told of having a virus sent to their computer in work. To counter the threat, 90 percent of Interneters have anti-virus protection installed on their computers.

[Copyright Expatica News 2003] 

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Datum laatste aanpassing: 02 July 2003 15:12:58
Date last update: Monday, January 05, 2004 19:53:57

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