Desktop anti-spyware software isn"t doing the job, IT professionals have concluded. According to an international survey by proxy appliance company Blue Coat Systems, 72 percent said desktop anti-spyware programs were ineffective in protecting their networks. Blue Coat surveyed 339 IT staffers who used programs from Computer Associates International (PestPatrol), Kaspersky Lab, Lavasoft (Ad-Aware), McAfee, Microsoft, Spybot, Symantec, or Webroot Software.
Eighty-four percent of respondents, from large, medium-size, and small organizations, reported their spyware problems were the same as or worse than three months ago, Blue Coat said. Techworld found this conflicted with findings for home broadband users in the U.S. whom the National Cyber Security Alliance, an industry body, said saw a reduction in infection from 91 percent in February 2004 to 80 percent in October.