Security issues are nothing to laugh about

Nowadays, information security poses greater problems because the knowledge gap between wrongdoers and regular people is wider than ever before. What makes me say that? Look around, the only thing regular people do is messaging, sending email, blogging, socializing and browsing around.

In past people who knew how to install a program, archive some files and copy them in volumes on diskettes were little gods for those who looked at PCs like a new music trend, destined to disappear in a few years. But that didn’t happen and computers become mainstream and few people don’t use them today.

The problem with mainstream is that now few people are really experts with computers and some of them have bad intentions, which poses big risks to all the others using computers as a way of life, which, just like LIFE itself isn’t fair sometimes.

Few people understand the risks and know how to protect themselves and that’s the biggest problem this days: the ignorants and the ones that fear too much and prefer not to use PCs for things they think are dangerous. First there were the viruses but that’s hardly the issue it was a few years ago. Internet scams are now “the big thing” as a lot of people are weak enough to believe what other are saying. The difference is that the Internet offers greater protection for thieves and allows someone with basic skills to conceal their identity to the victim.

The solution as I see it is not to try controlling the Internet too much as it will lose the most important thing people love about it: freedom, but to try and educate consumers more plus enacting stronger organizations (like local militia) with stronger tools to help them fight online crimes.

That’s vague, I know but if any of you with above average online security knowledge teaches a few friends about security basics maybe people will avoid rookie mistakes and make online interactions more secure. Am I wright or not?