Viruses, Spyware Cost Users Billions

According to a new Consumer Reports survey, consumers paid as much as $7.8 billion over the last two years to repair or replace computers infected with viruses and spyware. While the figure is down from a similar survey a year ago, the new survey shows that people are still paying a high price to deal with those problems.

The magazine found that spam e-mail is the biggest computer-security problem. However, viruses are the most expensive, with a price tag of $5.2 billion in 2004 and 2005 to repair or replace infected computers. Consumers also reported losing $630 million in 2004 and 2005 to phishing scams, the fake e-mails and Web pages that ask for private information such as account numbers and passwords.

Read more about the survey in the article Viruses, Spyware Cost Users $7.8 Billion or check your newsstand for the Consumer Reports issue in September.