Security for the 78 year olds
I found this on the Security tips and tricks blog and loved the article that Scott Charney did for Computerworld about how he tries to make things safe in the online world for his 78 year old mum.
I chat to my mum about online security regularly.
"I'm not stupid you know dear" she admonishes me, when I try to talk to her about phishing email messages and spam that she receives through her browser based email system. (Note to self: I also need to warn her about the current 419 scam about adopting a puppy that can't cope with the heat in Africa and needs a new home).
Scott says:
"One of the things I talk about often is my mom, because she is 78 and she's found e-mail. I remember encouraging her to get broadband because she was using dial-up. I told her she really needed to get broadband, but to make sure to have a firewall -- and she asked me why broadband causes fires. The reality is my mom doesn't want to become a system administrator, and she does not want to become a security administrator. You have to educate consumers not to make mistakes like clicking on attachments from unknown sources and not following links and all of that. At the same time, we know users will click OK on any dialog box, and you have to find a way to manage these things. It is really critical that the IT industry does a much better job of what I call security usability. As I said, my mother does not want to configure a firewall; she doesn't want to have to manage her antivirus. She wants it to be like the telephone or the television, where she turns it on and it works."
Just like my mum (but she's not yet 78 yet)!
Read the article here...
