Editor’s Note:  The report THE GENERATION GAP IN COMPUTER SECURITY: A SECURITY USE SURVEY FROM GEN Y TO BABY BOOMERS is attached below.

From: FierceGovernmentIT

By Paul Mah

The tech-savvy may not necessarily be more conscious of protecting their privacy or practicing safe computing, according to a new study sponsored by ZoneAlarm and conducted by Dimensional Research. The survey involved 1,245 PC users in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia in March this year, and was designed to quantify generational differences towards personal computer security.

According to the report, Gen Y is defined as 18- to 25-year-olds, while baby boomers is 56- to 65-year olds.

Concluding that computer security increases in priority with age, the report noted that only 31 percent of Gen Y participants rank security as the most important consideration–compared with 58 percent of baby boomers. In terms of security and privacy, about 36 percent of baby boomers expressed that they are “very concerned,” compared to only 20 percent of Gen Y respondents.

Moreover, Gen Y was determined to be overconfident in its security knowledge, with more from the Gen Y group claiming to be more knowledgeable about security despite a higher percentage having security issues in the past two years.

One thread of commonality that holds true across all the age group is how the vast majority of those polled keep sensitive data on their computers. This includes tax records, passwords and financial information.

While the limited sample size and geographical spread may mean that the findings are not necessarily representative of workers everywhere, CIOs and IT managers could nevertheless find it useful to keep age group in mind when reiterating the importance of new security measures to employees.

The full eight-page report can be downloaded from ZoneAlarm here (.pdf).

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