UK Personal Internet Security Report

A UK government committee released an interesting report on Personal Internet Security.

Personal Internet Security Report

These government reports can be a bit hard to digest, but to quote directly the reports key recommendations.

“The current assumption that end-users should be responsible for security is inefficient and unrealistic” and then goes on to urge security responsibility to be taken by government and ISPs, and then calls for more laws and industry standards.

“The Government have insisted in evidence to this inquiry that the responsibility for personal Internet security ultimately rests with the individual. This is no longer realistic, and compounds the perception that the Internet is a lawless “wild west”"

I don’t quite agree with this report, sure I’m all for more laws and standards for businesses, but when it comes to home users, they should be educated more, rather than trying to apply the nanny state. Protecting people with technology and laws just isn’t going work against most internet attacks, which have social engineer aspects. I also find a home users just aren't aware of risks or security savvy, for example they will send bank account details and passport scans by regular Email, or post too much personal information of social networking sites, there's little laws or technologies can do to protect against that sort of user behaviour.

For me its an absolute MUST children are educated about the dangers of using the internet while at school, I think it should be mandatory. I am always happy to volunteer my own time to educate kids about Internet saftey, I find most adults don’t have the slightest clue what their kids are up to online.