It may have escaped your attention, but October is National Cyber Security
Awareness Month.
You can be forgiven since Congress only remembered it on
Monday, overwhelmingly passing a resolution to raise the profile of U.S.
computer security, particularly among consumers.
The non-profit National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), a public-private
partnership that includes computer companies and groups representing
computer users, actually sponsors national Cyber Security Awareness Month.
Its members include the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Trade
Commission, Cisco, RSA Securityand
AOL.
The House resolution praises the NCSA’s efforts and pledges Congress’s
support for “existing and future computer security voluntary consensus
standards, practices and technologies.”
Throughout October, the NCSA is holding weekly events across the country on
specific cyber-security topics aimed at consumers, students, children,
parents and educational institutions.
By the NCSA’s own measure, raising cyber security awareness among consumers
is a daunting task. According to a study conducted last year by the NCSA,
consumers have a long way to go to reach any sort of standards.
In what the NCSA calls “one of the largest and most comprehensive in-home
studies” ever conducted, the group found Americans woefully under-protected
when they go online.
The survey found that the majority of consumers think they are safe online
but lack basic protections against viruses, spyware, hackers and other
threats. It also concluded that “large majorities of home computers” are
infected and remain highly vulnerable to future infections.
In addition, 67 percent of home users do not have
current antivirus software installed on their computers while 15 percent
stated they have no antivirus protection at all.
Firewalls? Three in five users (58 percent) said they don’t the difference
between a firewall and anti-virus protection. Not surprisingly, 67 percent
do not have any firewall protection at all.
Wireless? Almost two in five (38 percent) leave their connections completely
open.
“Our increasing dependence on computers and computer networks exposes us to
the risks of cyber attacks, viruses and hacking that have the potential to
rob us of our personal identity, disrupt our economy, and undermine our
national security,” Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said in his floor statement
Monday.
Smith added, “National Cyber Security Awareness Month is intended to focus
the attention of all citizens on practices and technologies that they can
use to protect themselves, and our national cyber infrastructure, while
online.”
NCSA officials said the results of this year’s survey will be available in
November.