NATIONAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED TO HELP UK GET SAFE ONLINE

27th October 2005


NATIONAL CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED TO HELP UK GET SAFE ONLINE

‘Get Safe Online’ Report Highlights Public Confusion Over Online Safety

Millions of UK Internet users are putting themselves at risk of attack from Internet criminals because they don’t understand threats to their computer or the ways to protect against them. These are the findings of a new campaign called ‘Get Safe Online’ launched today in London to tackle this serious problem.

As threats from organised Internet criminals grow, new research from Get Safe Online http://www.getsafeonline.org has found that over three quarters of the UK’s population (83%) don’t know enough about protecting themselves online. In fact 42% of the population just rely on friends and family for online safety advice rather than finding expert information for themselves.

The “Get Safe Online Reportâ€

A welcome initiative if it works (and doesn't turn out to be another bit of government 'spin'...and bear in mind Whitehall itself was a victim of the I Love You virus and HMG is being rightly criticised at present for a number of IT projects that have gone vastly over-budget and in some cases spectacularly failed to deliver).

Cynicism aside, this has potential to be a good project. Given the wealth of information - not just in the media but on all sorts of websites, chatrooms, not to mention requests for help on this and other sites - it still staggers me to find peeps with broadband and no firewall, no anti-virus etc.

Here's hoping...