U.S. consumers lose more than $8 billion to online threats.(SELECTED TOPICS)

The risks associated with using the Internet remain high, according to Consumer Reports latest 'State of the Net" survey. Consumer Reports projects that U.S. consumers lost more than $8 billion over the last two years to viruses, spyware and phishing schemes.

Additionally, the "State of the Net" survey shows that consumers face a 1 in 3 chance of becoming a cybervictim, an incidence level that hasn't abated in the past year.

Online consumers who fell prey to phishing schemes experienced a five-fold increase in financial losses since the 2005 survey. The median cost per phishing incident was $850--five times higher than the median cost of $165 in 2005. Consumer Reports projects that U.S. consumers lost $630 million over the past two years to fraudulent phishing e-mail scams.

The 2006 "State of the Net" survey was conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center among a nationally representative sample of more than 2,000 households with Internet access. Based on the survey, Consumer Reports projects that Americans spent at least $7.8 billion for computer repairs, parts and replacement over the past two years to correct problems caused by viruses and spyware.

Key 2006 "State Of The Net" Findings

Twenty-nine percent of survey respondents said a virus, spyware or phishing scam caused serious computer problems and/or financial losses in the last two years. And based on survey projections, virus infections prompted an estimated 2.6 million households to replace their computers in the past two years. Additionally, 35 percent of survey respondents didn't use software to block or remove spyware. And Consumer Reports projects that 2.4 million U.S. households with broadband remain unprotected by a firewall.

* Spam: The incidence of heavy spam remains as elevated as last year. Survey results indicate that about 795,000 households continued to buy products advertised through spam. Additionally, in 8 percent of the households surveyed that had children under 18, a child had inadvertently seen pornographic material as a result of spam.