Most Americans believe their computers are protected against viruses and spyware, but scans found that a large number had outdated or disabled security software, according to a poll released on Monday.

Fully 87 percent of Americans polled said they had antivirus software, 73 percent said they had a firewall and 70 percent said they had antispyware software, according to the survey by security software maker McAfee and the National Cyber Security Alliance.

But when pollsters asked to remotely scan the respondents’ computers, the story turned out to be very different.

While 94 percent of those polled had antivirus software, just half had updated it in the past month, the survey showed. Eighty-one percent had a firewall protecting private information, but just 64 percent had enabled it. And 70 percent said they had antispyware software, but only 55 percent had enabled it.

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