A McAfee study of PCs around the world found that 17 percent had no antivirus protection, and the U.S. outpaced the average with 19 percent of PCs unprotected.
The study counted as unprotected machines those that had no antivirus protection installed, or whose antivirus subscription had expired. In the U.S., 12 percent of PCs did not contain any antivirus program, and 7 percent had software that was expired.
McAfee analyzed data from voluntary scans of 27 million machines in 24 countries. According to the company, the study was the first to examine machines directly rather than polling their users. User polls have typically found that six percent of PCs are not protected by antivirus software, Gary Davis, McAfee's director of global consumer product marketing, said.
