Consumers vastly more afraid of computer crime than burglary

It's a funny, and telling, statement on the world of criminal activity: According to a survey from anti-virus maker AVG Technologies, consumers are now more afraid, by a wide margin, of being victimized by cybercrime than they are of offline crimes—crimes which could cause them real, physical harm—like burglary or assault.

In a survey of 1,000 U.S. computer users this March, 57 percent said they felt they were likely to be victims of a computer crime, about three times as many who felt they would be victims of a burglary and five times as many who thought they would be physically assaulted.

Despite the fears, a full 15 percent of those surveyed said they didn't know when security software was installed on their PCs.

More shocking: 73 percent of the respondents said they felt that they were being protected by their Internet service provider. That's really frightening: While most ISPs filter email for spam, that's honestly about the extent of your protection, unless you're one of the scant few who's installed some kind of "Internet access package" provided by the ISP and which may include some rudimentary malware protection.

AVG of course would love for you to protect yourself with its own antivirus package, but almost any antivirus and anti-spyware package will do. You can see my most recent antivirus recommendations here.