12th – 16th November is the awareness week for Get Safe Online, the website sponsored by the government and businesses including eBay. Today they were in Bristol promoting safe browsing and giving advice on how to keep your personal information secure when you’re on the Internet.
The good news is that the message is slowly getting across with 88% of Internet users now having some form of protection such as a firewall or antivirus software installed on their computers. Not such good news is the estimated 7.8 million people who have WiFi networks which are unsecured and open for anyone to access.
The Get Safe Online team were handing out leaflets and offering advice at Bristol University, Age Concern and later in the day at Bristol’s Central Library, where this group of students from Bristol Cathedral School received advice on safe Internet browsing.
Inside both at Age Concern and in the library, workshops were held where anyone could receive hands on help to understand how to stay safe online.
As well as visiting venues around the country Get Safe Online is attracting interest from the media with various articles and news bulletins highlighting the campaign.
Anything that promotes online safety has to be a good thing, so if you see the team in a town near you make sure you go and say hello. More importantly read the latest Get Safe Online report. It highlights WiFi and social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, as two of the biggest security risks this year.
