Safer Internet Day (SID) has been running since 2005, an EU initiative which opens up the conversation around internet safety and how we can all improve the way we use the internet to keep our personal data safe as well as ourselves. Cyberbullying and trolling, along with scams and particularly dangerous predators phishing for as much information as they can find, are real threats that we have to deal with today and these threats are not reserved for young people. So we all need to know how to protect ourselves and we can do this through improving our digital skills training and knowledge.
Internet safety
More specifically, what does internet safety cover? We use the internet for most things now, the IOT means that we’re ‘connected’ for a large part of our day to day lives, this might be via social media, online banking, even simply using the internet to search for something! We’re at risk of revealing certain pieces of data through any one of these activities, so knowing how to defend ourselves against predators is vital.
The Digital Garage runs sessions, as part of their vast digital skills training, on just this topic, and having teamed up with Internet Matters, tomorrow they’re welcoming individuals and families to learn everything from the basics and more!
Safer Internet Use In Business
Safer Internet Day is primarily targeted towards the education of under 18’s, while this is necessary and commendable, we’d like to take this opportunity to broach the subject of safer internet within businesses and for their employees. Including this as part of your digital skills training at work will greatly aid businesses and employees alike. Businesses should have a protocol which keeps not only their data and customer data safe but also their employees safe. 2018 was a rough year for businesses, with data breaches and scandals popping up left right and centre; customers struggle to have confidence in the security of their data when it comes to businesses storing it. We also witnessed the GDPR updates in May 2018, this hopefully brought most businesses up to date with data storage regulations, but in case you still need a refresh, here you go.
As for employees, encouragement to upskill them or educate all teams on how to keep their information safe should become a higher priority! The responsibility to keep the whole workplace safe online lies with everyone! With shared working spaces becoming more and more common, and remote working taking place in coffee shops and restaurants for meetings or a day away from the office, and personal laptops being brought for in-office use, open networks are accessed on laptops more and more and it’s these kinds of things which can gradually reveal pieces of our PII.
A recent study found that even something as simple as password protection is still not being taken very seriously, with almost 50% of people using the same passwords for work and home and employees actually sharing up to six passwords on average with their co-workers!
It’s time for us all to step up our game and help to build a safer, more secure environment through better, more comprehensive digital skills training, not only at home and for the youngest generation but for ourselves and our businesses too!
Follow #SaferInternetDay2019, #SaferInternetDay & #SID2019 on twitter to follow the topic tomorrow.
