Yesterday at the QEII Conference Centre in London saw opening of The UK Council for Child Internet Safety Summit. The Council was a recommendation in Professor Tanya Byron’s report ‘Safer Children in a Digital World’

The primary purpose of the summit was to launch the Child Internet Safety Strategy. The summit provided an opportunity to discuss the strategy, showcase recent research findings and highlight the good progress made so far in delivering on the child online safety agenda.

The event also had a public facing element with the launch of the internet safety code and three cartoon characters that will help remind children of some of do’s and don’ts to safe use of the internet, I think these character are great and can be used by anyone  on the internet to highlight the internet safety message to children. More information can be found on the UKCCIS website. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/ukccis

Get Safe Online won a Nominet Best Practice Challenge award earlier this month. This recognises our success in achieving collaboration between government, law enforcement and the private sector to promote internet security for citizens and small businesses.

To support Adult Learners’ Week Ofcom has published the first in a series of Managing Your Media guides designed to promote media literacy across the UK.

Available as a video and downloadable guide, this resource is intended to show parents and guardians how to use parental controls and filters to manage their children’s access to digital TV and internet content. The guide also encourages parents and guardians to talk to their children about what they do on the internet and how to use it safely.

Ofcom research found that 57 per cent of children aged 8-15 mostly watch TV without an adult in the room.  Similarly, half of all children aged 8-11 and two-thirds of those aged 12-15 mostly use the internet without an adult present.

The video and guide can be found here: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/advice/guides/media/media/

One in three internet users are too scared to shop online, according to the Office of Fair Trading. (Hat tip: Metro.)

‘Online retailing is the future for many businesses and increasingly important to the economy. If consumers are not confident online, demand will grow at a slower rate. So, we must tackle these concerns right now if the online market is to grow at its full potential,’ says OFT chief executive John Fingleton.

Visit GetSafeOnline.org for more advice about:

• Avoiding online rip-offs
• Using online auctions
• Picking good, trustworthy sellers
• Making payments online
• Buying holidays and travel online safely

You can also watch our videos with key tips about online safety.

Students are placing themselves at the greatest risk of online fraud compared to any other adult demographic in the UK, according to a new study (1) from GetSafeOnline.org.

Highest risk group: Students

Internet users in full-time education (2) are almost twice as confident online as other internet users – more than half (51%) consider themselves ‘very’ internet literate, compared to the national average of 26%. Despite this, they are the most dismissive of the risk of online crime and of the importance of basic security tools (such as anti-virus software) in protecting them against it.

• One in 10 (10%) consider there to be ‘no risk’, more than double the national average (four percent)
• Almost one in three (30%) do not see security software as an important measure, far exceeding the national average of 18%

This apparent complacency translates to their online behaviour, too – students are amongst the greatest culprits in taking unnecessary risks online. For example:

• 28% admit to entering personal details into a website from an unsecured computer, over double the national average of 11%
• Almost one in five (19%) regularly post valuable personal information (such as their date of birth or home address) on social networking sites, almost double the national average (11%)

Lowest risk group: Retired ‘silver surfers’

The lowest risk internet users were those in retirement (3), despite rating themselves as less internet literate than their student counterparts. The largest proportion (40%) consider themselves to be ‘fairly’ literate, acknowledging there are things that they are ‘not sure about’. This moderate level of confidence makes these ‘silver surfers’ much less dismissive of the risk of online crime.

• The majority (55%) believe there is ‘some risk’; only two percent thought there was ‘no risk’
• 89% consider security software a key crime prevention measure, almost 30% higher than the student group

This vigilance also translates to their online behaviour. 70% claim to have never taken any of the common behavioural risks online, such as opening or forwarding attachments from an unknown source (4). This is almost twice the proportion of students (37%) and significantly better than the national average (53%).

How can we account for these differences?

Tony Neate, Managing Director of GetSafeOnline.org, explains: “Our study set out to establish whether online security factors vary according to age, gender, geography and occupation. Online criminals operate on a mass scale so are indiscriminate about who they target. Whether they are successful or not depends largely on two factors: firstly, how good we are at securing our computers; and secondly, how much we avoid risky activities and behaviours while we’re using the internet.

Psychologist Donna Dawson comments: “How confident and secure we feel using the internet – as opposed to how secure we actually are – depends on our life-experience and on how emotionally ‘involved’ we are with our internet usage. The more we need something, the more we are likely to rationalise that everything surrounding this ‘need’ is okay.

“For instance, many students ‘need’ the internet for social prestige; they are inclined to put their personal details online in order to attract friends and admirers, and push any associated risk out of conscious thought. The silver surfers have the right balance between a longer life-experience of risk and a lower emotional need for internet usage; they therefore tend to recognise the rationale for higher internet security,” she explains.

Neate adds: “These findings are a wake-up call for students in particular and we’d urge them to take immediate steps to reduce their risk – easily done by visiting www.getsafeonline.org. If they increase their understanding of the potential scams, and take the basic precautions that we recommend, they can significantly improve their online safety without losing the benefits and enjoyment of the internet.”

The study also highlighted other vulnerable groups, including full-time parents and carers (5).

-Ends-

Notes to Editors

(1) Research was conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of GetSafeOnline.org, interviewing a sample of 1,000 adult internet users aged 18 years or above in the UK. Note profile summary table (5) below.

(2) Note – 92 percent of full-time students surveyed were aged 18-24 years.

(3) Note – 97 percent of retired participants surveyed were over the age of 55 years.

(4) The common online behavioural risks that participants were questioned on include: opening email attachments from an unknown source; clicking on a link in an unsolicited email; entering personal or bank details from a computer you don’t know is secure; replying to an unsolicited or ‘spam’ email; forwarding an email attachment from an unknown source to a friend/colleague; responding to an email requesting personal information (i.e. ‘phishing’ scam).

(5) Profile summary table:

For further information and interviews:

• Contact the Get Safe Online press office team on 020 3047 2561 or press@getsafeonline.org.
• Visit the website at www.getsafeonline.org/go/media or the Get Safe Online blog at www.getsafeonlineblog.org
• To obtain general information and statistics about UK internet usage and online safety behaviour in the UK, download the latest Get Safe Online Report at http://www.getsafeonline.org/media/GSO_Report_2008.pdf

About Get Safe Online:

Get Safe Online (www.getsafeonline.org), which is now in its fourth year, is the UK’s national internet security awareness initiative. A joint partnership between the Government, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), as well as public and private sector sponsors from the worlds of technology, communication, retail and finance, the initiative continues to educate, inform and raise awareness of internet security issues to encourage confident, safe use of the internet.

GetSafeOnline.org is sponsored by the Cabinet Office, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), Home Office, Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), HSBC, Microsoft, Cable & Wireless, Ofcom and PayPal.

About Tony Neate, Managing Director, GetSafeOnline.org

Tony Neate started his career in law enforcement in 1976 as a Police Officer with the South Wales Police. In 1989, he moved to the Commercial Fraud Squad where he ran investigations into large-scale, serious and organised fraud.  In 1995, being one of only a handful of digital evidence examiners in the country, he set up the Hi-Tech Crime Unit within South Wales Police, subsequently dealing with computer-related offences including hacking, online child abuse, denial of service attacks, cyber stalking, email abuse and phishing. In 2001, he took up the Industry Liaison position within the newly formed National Hi-Tech Crime Unit based in London.  Following his retirement from the Police Service, he became Managing Director for the Get Safe Online initiative in 2006. Tony also acts as a consultant on hi-tech crime and security matters.

About Donna Dawson, Psychologist, BA, MSc:

Donna Dawson is a psychologist specialising in personality and behaviour (BA Hons, MSc, completing PhD). She gained her credentials at Brandeis University (Massachusetts, USA), Manchester University, and the University of London. She is a renowned UK commentator and expert in explaining how people’s behaviour and lifestyle choices reflect back on their personalities. Donna regularly contributes to discussions on Sky News, BBC Radio Five Live, This Morning, The Richard and Judy Show, The Wright Stuff and The Heaven & Earth Show.

Symantec reports that Macs have been infected with malware from pirated copies of Apple iWork 09 and Adobe Photoshop CS4. Victim’s computers were used to launch attacks against an unknown website. This underscores the need for all computer users to take security precautions. Nobody has automatic immunity.

(Hat tips ZDnet and Slashdot)

As reported on cnet, according to @spam there’s a worm going round on Twitter. Related to, but not necessarily caused by, a website called StalkDaily.com, it infects users’ profile pages, sends spam messages (‘tweets’) and can cause Twitter to lock users out of their account, requiring a password reset.

Twitter is a cross between blogging, instant messaging and SMS. (See Wikipedia’s definition for more information.)

Our advice:

• Report spam to @spam and other issues directly to Twitter. If you can’t log in, email support@twitter.com.
• Don’t open a link in a message that relates to StalkDaily.com or click on the sender’s profile.
• Get additional help and information from Twitter’s Support centre.
• Follow @GetSafeOnline on Twitter and get the latest blog posts, alerts and warnings from GetSafeOnline.org.

I blogged about the Conficker virus last week but April 1st came and went without a Conficker apocalypse.

Was Conficker a dud? “The truth is, nobody knows,” according to Ian Paul on PC World.

However, Websense, a security vendor, reported that Conficker had started to download a binary file on April 7th.

You can sign up for security alerts and warnings from HM Government (CPNI) on GetSafeOnline.org and get up-to-date warnings about important security news.

According to Postini, an anti-spam company, 94 percent of all email on the internet is spam (hat tip: New York Times).

Since a large proportion of spam emails also contain viruses, it’s obvious that spam protection is also virus protection.

For more information, read GetSafeOnline’s guide to protecting yourself from spam.

April 1st is rumoured to be ‘activation day’ for the widespread Conficker worm. As mentioned in our January alert and blog post, We advise Windows users to download and install the latest updates for their operating system and to update their anti-virus software. Visit GetSafeOnline.org for free, independent security tips and advice.

A recent Symantec survey reports that:

• Children spend 43.5 hours a month online (but parents think it is 18.8 hours)
• 31% of children say that their parents don’t know what websites they visit

Hat tip PC Pro.

According to research by security firm Sophos, a third of people use the same password for a number of different websites. This isn’t good practice because identity thieves could steal or deduce the password for one site and use it on many others. See GetSafeOnline.org’s advice about strong passwords for more information.

(Hat tip: PC World)