The revelation comes from a survey of more than 9000 users of IT security software from Avira, the German-based IT security software vendor.
The company says its researchers also found that more than 60% of consumers have tried more than one IT security application in the last 12 months, largely owing to dissatisfaction with their existing security software.
The international survey also found that 12.01% of users had thought about not using the internet because of safety reasons.
Sorin Mustaca, a data security expert with Avira, said that it is not surprising that consumers try multiple security products each year, since everyone is trying to find the right security product that can effectively balance protection and a computer's resource usage.
"The scary take-away from this survey is that 25% of the respondents admitted to just turning off their security products because they feel that it hurt the performance of the machine", he said.
"That's not a good idea because such a practice leaves the computer totally exposed to the even simplest of viruses, allowing the bad guys to include it in a botnet used to distribute malware and phishing", he added.
According to Mustaca, this is a clear sign for the vendors that even more care has to be taken in order not to overload the security software with features which may have a great impact on system performance.
"In the end, when it comes to security, it is better to have minimal protection which goes unnoticed than protection with all whistles and bells which the user deactivates in order to be able to use his computer", he explained.