Online Security & Education

In the past few weeks there have been news stories about email addresses and passwords being posted online for user accounts for Hotmail, Gmail and other web based email clients (BBC News). Should we have more information on how to stay safe online? Is it necessary that everyone sits through an education program before they can log on?

The majority of internet users should know about Phishing and Key logging attacks, which were used to capture the most recent breach of account details. There are plenty of articles online willing to offer advice on how to prevent/detect these. The US has gone one step further and had a National Cyber Security Month in order to educate people about being online. It ‘urged all internet users to play their part in protecting the network from attack’ (BBC News). This implies that not all internet users do this – so perhaps education would be a good idea.

I think that some sort of training before people go online might help educate those who are new to the internet on what can happen. Yet it might also  discourage people, or push them to become complacent with their security. With more people aware of traditional scams it would also force the perpetrators to think of new schemes and ways to trick people - so perhaps there wouldn’t be fewer victims of these scams!?!

Bottom line is: anyone who uses the internet should be aware of current scams, be particularly careful who they give any secure information to, choose a secure password and change it either monthly or quarterly.

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Home run! Great slugging with that asenwr! # Posted By Dany | 6/20/11 8:01 PM