Robert Berger, 303-442-3813 x 153

rberger@webroot.com

or

104 West Partners

MacLean Guthrie, 720-407-6076

Maclean.Guthrie@104west.com

Logo: http://www.webroot.com

More than 18 million college students will head back to school this fall and nearly every one of them owns a personal computer. Unfortunately, many of these students will learn a number of hard lessons: Data loss and hackers, like midterms, are inescapable. Human error, software corruption, malware infections or theft, will be just a few of the reasons that many students will lose valuable data in the coming semester and underscore the need to protect both computers and content.

"There are a lot of lessons students learn in school, but losing their personal identity and data should not be among the lessons young people have to deal with," said Peter Watkins, CEO, Webroot, a leading provider of security solutions. "For students, losing a term paper or project can be far more costly than taking the time to back up their data."

College students spend an average of 18 hours a week online completing activities for school, work, and recreation, according to a 2007 study by EDUCAUSE. According to a survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 64 percent of online teens have spent time creating content on the Internet including photos, video, stories, artwork, songs or music. Spending so much time in the digital world makes students vulnerable to the growing number of online security threats that not only steal passwords but can also destroy valuable files such as personal financial information or school assignments.

According to technology industry research, an estimated five percent of "trusted" web sites have some sort of threat associated with them like adware and malicious spyware. Even well known sites such as Wikipedia, Google and Facebook have been known to inadvertently host malicious content. Webroot research has shown that up to 46 percent of PC users have permanently lost data; 20 percent in the last year alone. In spite of this, a recent study from the Consumer Electronics Association found that nearly one in three PC users still don't see the need to back up their files, while nearly a quarter won't back them up because it's 'too time consuming'.

"Downloading music, sharing files and photos, instant messaging, clicking on free downloads and playing online games - after doing homework of course - are the top online activities for students. Unfortunately, they are also the things that put them the most at risk," added Watkins. "To protect their systems and their data, students need to have a comprehensive online security strategy that's easy and automatic."

To help students returning to school this year, Webroot has created an easy list of tips to follow that can dramatically improve online security.