In our current information age, the issue of the publics concern over the issue of online security being threaten is ever increasing, as they are constantly being invaded spam, cookies, viruses, worms and more. Security is defined as the protection of data against accidental or intentional disclosure to unauthorized persons, or unauthorized modifications or destruction. Privacy refers to the rights of individuals and organizations to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is to be transmitted to others (Grandinetti, 1996; Martin,).
In the recent years where more and more transactions and work are being done, published and sent online, the public is becoming more concerned over how their data is going to be used by the government, and more recently, businesses. This has thus led to the passing of various privacy protection laws.
Escalating further the publics' concern over their online security and privacy are the following news stories:-
- The reporter who was able to purchase a list containing the names, addresses, ages and telephone numbers of young children, while using the assumed name of a notorious convicted murderer.
- The Internet user in Oregon who paid $222 for a copy of the state Department of Motor Vehicles list of names and license plates and put it on the Internet, along with software for searching it.
- The US News & World Report subscriber who sued the publisher for renting his name, address and subscription preference, accusing him of misappropriation.
The following have been provided as the top 12 ways to protect the users privacy online (EFF, 1999):
- Do not reveal personal information inadvertently.
- Turn on cookie notices in your Web browser.
- Keep a `clean e-mail address.
- Do not reveal personal details to strangers or just-met-friends.
- Realize you may be monitored at work, avoid sending highly personal e-mail to mailing lists, and keep sensitive files on your home computer.
- Do not reply to spammers, for anything.
- Be conscious of Web security.
- Be conscious of home computer security.
- Examine privacy policies and seals.
- Remember that you decide what information about yourself to reveal, when, why, and to whom.
- Use encryption.
- Keep sensitive files on your home computer
At the end of the day, in my opinion, there is a very big lack of public confidence towards the online security today, which poses a very huge impediment to full scale electronic commerce. This issue of lack of confidence, i believe, is not only about security of value, but more so about trust in the information society.
Therefore to overcome this barrier, very party including the government, vendors and organizations should work hand-in-hand to take serious measures in increasing the level of online security of the public. Only through this, can the publics?trust and faith towards online security increase.
Although many are aware that the threat on online security will always be around, we should nevertheless try to reduce and overcome this information technology weaknesses for the good of the public.
Reference links:
- http://hsbcprivatebank.com/services/online-security-five-golden-rules.html
- http://www.maybank2u.com.my/online_security_watch/five_tips.shtml
- www.pafis.shh.fi/~jirrat01/thesis/udo.pdf
- http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/mobile_security/documents/mobile_agents/pp-agentSecurityFIN.pdf
- http://nob.cs.ucdavis.edu/history/CD/ande72a.pdf
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