Houston leads U.S. in malware infections, tech security firm says

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Houston leads the nation in the number of computer and mobile devices infected with malware, or software that can damage or disable those devices, according to one technology security firm's analysis.

Colorado-based Webroot combed through its 2016 data collected through its anti-phishing service and other capabilities to estimate the number of personal computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones that are infected in the nation's metro areas.

The company estimates that for Houston, 60,801 devices were infected -- leading No. 2 Chicago by more than 11,000 devices. The other Top 10 cities, ranked in order, were Phoenix, Denver, San Antonio, Dallas, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Minneapolis and Charlotte, N.C.

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"Our most infected cities list shows that cybercriminals have no geographical bias," David Dufour, Webroot's senior director of engineering, said in a statement. "Whether you live in a big city of small town, from east coast to west coast and everywhere in between, you are susceptible to being a victim of malware."

According to Webroot, the average infected device has six to 24 pieces of malware installed. Recent local examples of malware's impacts include financial information security breaches that have been reported at some restaurants.

Webroot offered the following tips: