{"id":57165,"date":"2017-06-02T10:48:58","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T15:48:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=57165"},"modified":"2017-06-12T11:29:21","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T16:29:21","slug":"real-time-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/real-time-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Out of 5 PC Users Lack Real-Time Protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Study Shows Over 20% of PC Users Lack Real-Time\u00a0Security<\/h4>\n

PC Matic recently conducted a study on the number of PCs that are currently running without the protection of an anti-virus (AV) solution.\u00a0 A total of 35,609 were scanned for security protection.\u00a0 Out of those, the results were broken down based on operating system.<\/p>\n

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Looking at the graph above, one can see, 11% of the PCs using Windows 10 are not running an AV with real-time protection. \u00a0<\/em>Since Microsoft has integrated the Windows Defender Antivirus into the Windows 10 operating system, we made the assumption that all of Windows 10 systems had an AV installed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Windows 10, out of the box, has Defender as the AV.\u00a0 It is designed to stay on until another AV is installed. \u00a0 However, for these 11% of PCs in our analysis, Windows Defender was not found to be executing in real time.\u00a0\u00a0This begs the question \u2013 do the device users know they\u2019re unprotected?<\/p>\n

From a Windows 8 perspective, 27% of tested PCs did not have real-time protection.\u00a0 Out of that 27%, 20% did not even have an AV solution installed on the computer.\u00a0 (Note:\u00a0 Windows 8 operating system also has an integrated form of Windows Defender AV.\u00a0\u00a0 The exact nature of the AV and how Microsoft systematically implements the protection has been somewhat confusing and inconsistent.\u00a0 Therefore, a fraction of the 20% of Windows 8 PCs in our analysis may in fact have Windows Defender installed.)<\/p>\n

Looking at the Windows 7 data, 35% of scanned PCs did not have an AV with real-time protection.\u00a0 Twenty-five percent of those, did not have a security solution installed.<\/p>\n

Almost half of the Windows XP PCs scanned, did not have real-time AV protection.\u00a0 Out of the 45% of which that did not have real-time protection, 31% do not have an AV installed on their PC.<\/p>\n

Until this point, there was a trend \u2013 the older the operating system, the higher the likelihood of not having an AV installed.\u00a0 However, Vista goes against the grain.\u00a0 Out of the Vista PCs tested, only 18% did not have real-time protection, and half of those did not have an AV installed at all.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h4>\n

In a time where cyber security has never been a bigger threat, knowing 20.9% of all scanned PCs are not running real-time AV protection is concerning, to say the least.<\/p>\n

These numbers lead to various speculations, one of which being, are the computer users aware that their current AV does not have real-time protection? Do they know they don\u2019t have an AV installed on their computer?\u00a0 Perhaps they\u2019re under the assumption the free trial that came with their PC is still active.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know.\u00a0 What we do know is one out of five PCs tested are not protected with a real-time security solution.\u00a0 We know that one out of ten PCs scanned have no security protection what-so-ever.<\/p>\n

Some users believe they\u2019re too smart to get infected.\u00a0 This may be partially true.\u00a0 Some users can spot a malicious scam a mile away.\u00a0 But what about the malicious ads or phishing emails that don\u2019t even have to be open or clicked on to begin their malicious activity?\u00a0 What then?\u00a0 Spoiler alert \u2013 they get infected because they either don\u2019t have a security solution, or they don\u2019t have one that is functioning in real-time.<\/p>\n

PC Matic encourages all PC users to check their security solution for the following:<\/p>\n