The long-awaited Internet
security campaign dubbed Project Endurance, has finally been
launched.
The project, a joint initiative of the
government, and the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit and sponsored by a
range of companies—including Microsoft, eBay, HSBC, Lloyds, TSB,
BT, Dell, Yell, and Securetrading—, has been long in gestation and,
so far, short of fanfare.
The campaign, now dubbed Get Safe
Online, suggests a three-pronged approach aimed at protecting your
PC, yourself and your business. A website,www.getsafeonline.org, will provide the main focus where people can obtain
reliable information.
It is a project that is desperately
needed after research found that 83% of the UK's population are
uninformed when it comes to protecting themselves
online.
But in the time the project has been
discussed, debated, and delayed, a new class of threats has
emerged. The targets used to be viruses and hacking. Now they are
phishing, identity theft and spyware, driven by organised
crime.
The proof of the pudding will be
whether a more online-aware public has the nous to put itself out
and practise a little self-help. The worry is that with only 15% of
people believing that it is their own responsibility to protect
themselves from cyber crime, 49% believing it should be the
responsibility of big business and 11% thinking it is the
government’s problem, self-help might be in short
supply.