Users want ISPs to filter spyware
A majority of net users want their ISPs so block spyware traffic. Half (51 per cent) of 1,000 consumers quizzed by NOP said their service providers should block spyware apps - invasive programs that covertly snoop on user's online activities - while only one in 10 of those quizzed reckon employers should take responsibility for addressing the problem. End user attitudes to seldom offered spyware screening services from ISPs mirror attitudes to spam filtering when such services were in their infancy four or five years ago.
The NOP Survey, sponsored by security firm Blue Coat, which sells proxy appliances designed to block spyware from invading corporate boundaries, found only a third (36 per cent) of respondents understand what spyware is. One in 10 of those quizzed thought it was "a gadget from Star Wars". Although 30 per cent of respondents run spyware checkers on their office PC, the survey sample suggests that they've installed programs such as Microsoft Anti-Spyware and Spybot Search and Destroy independent of their IT departments.
