Chicago (IL) – Consumer Reports has published its annual State of the Net survey and found that one of the most common “online blunders” is to believe that a Mac will shield you from malware threats, such as phishing scams. The magazine zeroed in on Apple’s web browser and said that users should use Firefox or Opera until Apple improves the security features of its web browser.

Consumer Reports found that Mac users fall prey to phishing scams at about the same rate as Windows users. However, in contrast to Windows users, fewer Mac users actually protect themselves with an anti-phishing toolbar – which would be a necessity as Safari does not include anti-phishing protection at this time.

Consequently, Consumer Reports tells the Mac audience among its readers to “use a browser with phising protection”, which would include Firefox, Opera or even IE. A free anti-phishing toolbar such as McAfee Site Advisor or FirePhish, is mentioned as an alternative to switching the browser. According to NetApplications, safari currently has a market share of 6.14%, behind Firefox with 19.22% and IE with 73.02%. Opera is estimated at 0.69% market share.

Other “online blunders” include the assumption that security software is protecting a PC, accessing a bank account through an email link, using a single password for all email accounts, downloading free software, clicking on a pop-up ad that claims your PC is insecure and shopping online the same way to do in regular stores.