GetSafeOnline: providing advice for consumers to help them stay safe on the Internet without blinding them with science

It's the fourth annual GetSafeOnline campaign week whereby the team will raise the profile of consumer internet safety through a revamped GetSafeOnline website (containing a wealth of commonsense "how to" information) and a range of media activity. It's a great cause as the campaign is not trying to sell you any products or services and it aims to help consumers to help themselves to be safer on the Internet.

I've been heavily invovled in supporting this important initiative in previous years and hence am keen to do whatever I can this time around too.

Here are some words directly from the GetSafeOnline team:

"Today the UK’s fourth annual Get Safe Online kicks off, a weeklong internet safety awareness campaign encouraging UK computer users to take steps to ensure that they and their machines are protected.

In a time of economic uncertainty, online security is becoming even more important as the growth of the ‘shadow economy’ in stolen identities can mean a person’s assets such as savings accounts can be stolen and emptied faster than ever.

Particularly, the use of ‘phishing attacks’ is rapidly on the rise – where criminals send fraudulent emails designed to trick internet users into submitting their financial or other confidential details. 23% of UK internet users surveyed said that they or someone they knew fell victim to such an attack this year, compared to just eight per cent in 2007.

The image of the geeky hacker is inaccurate: the vast majority of computer crime in the UK is highly organised, with criminals dealing in the buying and selling of personal information used to defraud targets such as full name, address, passport details, driver's licence number, date of birth, bank account details and sort codes, plus credit card numbers and security codes.

Get Safe Online Week aims to give everyone the tools and confidence to enjoy and use the internet safely. In the span of a couple of hours, anyone can learn a few simple steps to remain up-to-date and aware about online safety – a small investment compared to the potential loss and inconvenience if they are instead victims of identity theft.

Get Safe Online has created a web resource of information that can be perused at anyone’s convenience and contains tips for computer users of all ages, interests and levels of experience. For complete information and advice on how to guard against online identity fraud and other internet crime, visit the new Get Safe Online website at www.getsafeonline.org."