It’s the twelfth Safer Internet Day today where internet users around the world are warned of scams and educated on how to better protect themselves online with users being asked to “play your part for a better internet”.
Safer Internet Day is an initiative of the European Union that has pretty much gone global with around 100 countries participating. This year Safer Internet Day is highlighting security issues.
One in four internet users in the EU have experienced security issues such as viruses affecting devices, abuse of personal information, financial losses or children accessing inappropriate websites according to research published by Eurostat.
And concerns about online security stop people doing certain activities online. Almost one in five (19%) did not shop online and a similar number (18%) did not carry out banking activities. And 13 percent did not use the internet with a mobile device via a wireless connection from places other than home. Although on this latter issue, cost or data limits would impact on this response.
Ireland was one of the “safer” countries in the EU to go online, with 14 percent of internet users experiencing security related problems. It was the fourth safest behind the Czech Republic, Netherlands and Slovakia.
To help protect your security online, there are a few tips internet users should follow, including:
- never share log on information with others
- when providing personal information, it is much safer to access a website
- whose web address starts with https:// – the ‘s’ stands for ‘secure’
avoid using computers in public places when accessing internet banking or other financial websites - ensure any website you provide personal information to is for a trusted organisation or company
- ensure anti-virus software is up to date and your firewall is turned on
only download apps from trusted sources - ensure that particularly when entering passwords and personal information that nobody can see what data you’re entering
- if there is suspicious activity on your bank account or credit card to contact your bank immediately.
