Just because your machine isn't a firewall-lacking, virus-ridden, spyware-infested zombie under the control of Eastern European crime syndicates doesn't mean you're a typical US computer user. The reality is that viruses, spyware, and other computer threats have cost to US households an estimated $7 billion over the last two years alone, and 25 percent of all households are likely to become a "cybervictim" this year.

That's the word from Consumer Reports, which just announced the results of its most recent "State of the Net" survey. A sample of 2,000 US households turned up some surprising and troubling results about the level of basic computer literacy in this country. For instance, after years of mainstream news stories about viruses, spyware, and the like, an estimated 3.7 million broadband-connected households still have yet to deploy a firewall.

There's a bit of good news. Spam appears to be dropping, in large part due to better spam filters (and not to a lack of spammers trying to peddle their wares). But spammers only remain in business so long as consumers continue to purchase dubious herbal concoctions, mortgages, and porn after reading unsolicited e-mail. And no one does that, right? Right?

Actually, people do. Consumer Reports estimates that 650,000 people in the US "ordered a product or service advertised through spam in the month before the survey." Keep in mind, that's a single month.

Viruses continue to plague computer users. 38 percent of US households reported a virus infection in the last two years, and 20 percent of all users had significant computer trouble because of it. The situation is somewhat better when it comes to spyware—only nine percent reported a major problem—and phishing affects about 1 out of every 81 households. Still, that translates into 23,000 phishing attacks in April 2007 alone. Consumer Reports believes that, over the past two years, malware infestations have resulted in 1.8 million households replacing their PCs in order to free themselves of viruses and the like.

While the geeky set may avoid most of these horrors, it's clear that average users are still experiencing plenty of pain. Hopefully the situation will improve as people upgrade and new computers come equipped with default firewalls. In the meantime, Consumer Reports suggests some sensible precautions: use a firewall and security software, take care when using public computers, and... consider Mac. "Because Macs are less prevalent than Windows-based machines," we're told, "online criminals get less of a return on their investment when targeting them." There you go.