Surfing the Internet, a common activity of many students, left one student's computer open to attack from many viruses.

Taylor Strimple (sophomore-broadcast journalism) said she had a few viruses on her computer after she surfed the Internet one day.

"It was a lot of them at once," Strimple said.

Since she installed McAfee virus protection and a firewall on her computer, however, she said she has not had any problems.

According to a survey that was released last month by America Online and the National Cyber Security Alliance, students' computers may not be as protected and safe from viruses and spyware as the students think they are.

In the online safety survey, 329 dial-up and broadband adult computer users were asked about their online security to determine how much knowledge and understanding they have about these issues.

Following the interviews, technicians examined the participants' computers and looked at their firewall settings, anti-virus software, potential virus infections, parental control software and spyware.

"The study was designed to measure the perception gap between the risks consumers faced and what they thought they faced," Andrew Weinstein, an America Online spokesman, said. "Consumers felt they were safe, but they weren't."

Marc Sachs is the director of the SANS Internet Storm Center, part of the SANS Institute, a computer training and security organization.

"[The computer industry] doesn't do a good job through the mass media and other channels to get the average user to know how to protect themselves," Sachs said.

"If we had something [similar to the car safety and anti-smoking campaigns] for computer safety, that would be very cool," he added.

In the study, 77 percent of participants said they felt their computer was safe from viruses.

However, 63 percent of respondents have actually had a virus on their computer.

"We felt viruses were public enemy No. 1 on the Internet," Weinstein said. "We wanted all members to have world-class virus protection available."

Researchers also found that spyware or adware was present on 80 percent of the computers examined, but only 53 percent of those users surveyed thought that they had spyware on their computer.

When spyware or adware is installed on a computer, it can trace the user's online activities.

Martha Lockwood, the executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance, a privately and publicly funded computer education group, said a person's lack of awareness about computer issues is a problem.

"A lot of people don't know that they need protection, and if something gets through, what to do about it. Until people have an awareness, technology alone won't do it," Lockwood said. "We're trying to drive awareness and response to pressing cyber security issues."

Clifford Rodack, Penn State residence hall network coordinator, said Penn State provides students with free Symantec Antivirus protection, which automatically updates.

He recommended that students use Spybot, which is a free online service that has an immunize option that cleans the computer, or Ad-Aware to protect their computers from spyware being installed.

Sachs said people should keep their software updated, use anti-virus protection and guard their passwords.

"If people would do those simple things, security on the Internet would go way up," he added.

On the Information Technology Services (ITS) Web site, www.its.psu.edu, there is information about firewalls, antivirus protection, security updates, spyware protection and password security.

Adam Bachert (junior-electrical engineering) said that the information on the Web site about computer security would be helpful, but said he was not familiar with ITS's efforts to inform students.

"Prevention is usually the biggest key, [but] how are you going to prevent it if you don't know about it?" he said.