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UK surfers get savvier with security

Web surfers in the UK are becoming more aware of personal data security issues, an Ofcom report has suggested.

By Tom Brewster, 17 May 2010 at 17:44

The majority of UK web surfers are becoming savvier when it comes to personal data protection, according to a new Ofcom report.

Eight out of 10 adults with a social networking profile are more likely to just allow friends or family to see it, up from 48 per cent in 2007.

Despite this positive trend, 23 per cent said they do not have enough confidence to install security features.

The report showed how some are placing their faith in the web as well, which could be music to the ears of cyber criminals. One in five surfers said they trust that search results will have accurate and unbiased information, something that is often not the case.

There were also notable geographic differences across the UK in terms of how people are protecting their personal information.

Half of adults in Scotland are content to enter their home addresses on the internet, in comparison to 23 per cent in Wales and Northern Ireland. Furthermore, 44 per cent of adult Scottish internet users are happy to enter credit card details online, while the figure from Northern Irish residents stood at 19 per cent.

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2 comments

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Most People and Orgs Enjoy "Security" as a Matter of Luck

Great article highlighting that everyone needs a much higher computer/data security awareness. Check a book we use at work, "I.T. WARS" (you can Google it). It has a great Security chapter, and others that treat security. Check the author's FREE blog, "The Business-Technology Weave" (Google to that too) - it's hosted at IT Knowledge Exchange - a site that gets over a million hits a month and for good reason - it has great Question/Answer forums for everything technical and otherwise - ALL FREE. Highly recommended. Great stuff.

By janice33rpm on Monday May 17

Security Surfer

It is great to see the Ofcom report indicating that users are becoming more cautious when they use social networking sites like Facebook. This shows a significant step forward in terms of prevention against security and privacy issues. However, according to the report, people are quoted saying that they “lack confidence” in installing filtering software and security features, which in my point of view is rather worrying.

As a matter of fact, this ‘lack of confidence’ resonates with recent research conducted by CA. The findings showed that 63% of British parents have never discussed online safety with their child or teenager, with 52% of parents not setting up any Internet parental controls to protect their children online. The research also showed that young parents aged 18-24 are the most unsecure group, with 61% not having any parental control software installed on their home computers or games consoles.

This is particularly worrying if we consider that social networking sites such as Facebook and others are becoming more and more popular with young people, whilst at the same time representing an ideal route for internet predators to target innocent victims.

With all this disturbing data to hand, it is incredibly important to consider the implementation of security features like:

• Website filtering
• Parental control software
• Anti-malware software

These security features can guarantee a good level of protection against malicious websites, child threats and hidden malware.

Rossano Ferraris, EMEA Functional Lead - Internet Security Intelligence, CA ISBU

By Rossano on Tuesday May 18

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