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

It’s that time of year again, and with people’s pockets feeling stretched, many of us will be looking online to find those bargain buys. Shopping online offers convenience, choice and value for money. However, wherever there is money being exchanged, you can be sure there are fraudsters waiting to take advantage of anyone who’s not aware of the risks and fully protected.

It doesn’t mean avoiding the internet, but just making sure you don’t make life easy for fraudsters. As part of Get Safe Online Week, Ofcom has published a new video setting out steps consumers can take and things they should look out for when shopping online this Christmas. Well worth a look before splashing your cash.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

HM Revenue & Customs warn taxpayers and businesses that fraudsters are sending out fake, spoof emails in their name.

They give the following advice:

• Always check that you can see the padlock when you give confidential information on a website.
• An email that doesn’t use your name (e.g. “dear customer”) is likely to be a fake.
• A bogus sender, such as the names of departments that don’t exist.
• Embedded links in the email. They may look like the real thing but if you hover your mouse over them, you’ll see a different address ‘underneath’.

In general, we recommend that you don’t click on links in any email. It’s better to type in a known and trusted address.

You can forward fake HMR&C emails to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and read more advice from HMR&C on their website. You can learn how to stop unwanted email on GetSafeOnline.org.

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.

Identity theft is a worry for many people. Our research shows that nearly a quarter (23%) of people or someone they knew had been the victim of a phishing scam. Halifax Home Insurance report that identity theft is a major worry for 55% of people, second only to burglary.

So, insurance against it sounds like a good idea?

No, according to LoveMoney.com, it is an “expensive rip-off.” Instead of a £60-80 a year insurance policy, replacing key documents costs much less and you can buy protection registration yourself for £13.80 – a considerable saving.

Here are ten tips from LoveMoney.com about avoiding identity theft. You can also read Get Safe Online’s advice and tips on fixing things if you have become a victim.

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)

E-Crime Wales have developed an excellent, Welsh version of Space Invaders.

According to research by Dell, business travellers in the US and Europe lose 15,648 laptops per week. 900 of these go missing each week at Heathrow alone.

Hat tip: IT Pro

For more advice on protecting your laptop see our articles:

• Don’t let thieves steal your computer
• How to report a lost or stolen computer

Symantec recently did a survey to find out how many people took (stole) data when they left their employer. According to Symantec’s Guy Bunker, the answer is 79 percent.

Learn how to control access to critical information on Get Safe Online.

What causes otherwise sensible people to fall for ‘get rich quick’ scams?

In today’s economic climate, easy money cons are cruelly attractive. The Office of Fair Trading reckons that they cost UK victims £70m a year. (Hence our joint campaign with them for Scam Awareness month.)

Marketing guru Seth Godin takes an interesting look at the problem from the perspective of the scammer. What are they actually ‘selling’?

“What’s being sold here? It’s not riches, because if the riches were automatic, the seller would just hire people, right? Why make 1,000 people into millionaires if you can just hire 1,000 people and be a billionaire? No, it’s the belief in riches, the thrill of finding just the right deal, the challenge of getting a relative to loan you money one more time. It’s the frisson of excitement from sending in the money, the rush of impatience that follows as you wait for the package, and then the scary moment when you open the package and come face to face with your dreams.”