14 DAY TRIAL // All people that are using the Internet in our days are somewhat vulnerable to identity theft, with hackers being so vicious and numerous. But out of all this people that use it, soon the most vulnerable will be the students. The new school year is about to start and people that are in college and other individuals that are in educational institutions as well, will be somewhat forced by their activities to use the Internet.
When using the net, especially for school related purposes, the students are often asked to authenticate themselves by introducing personal data. That's when they become vulnerable to phishing via clone-sites and not only. There are many dangers that lurk on the Internet and the best thing is to tell people that might be vulnerable about all the stuff that could happen to them if they are not careful, so if they are prevented, it is less likely for them to be victims.
According to Kablenet, that's the way David Smith, deputy commissioner of the ICO thinks, and he had stated that every day we give out our personal details, which can leave us open to ID theft, unwanted marketing and loss of privacy. Also, because they wanted to help the students, the ICO released a Personal Information Toolkit, three days ago, on the 17th of August. This toolkit can be found on their website and contains various information that is bound to help the students.
Let's face it: not all students are techies, some of them are not even fond of computers at all, and that's why I think this is a great initiative. But what worries me is the fact that people who hate PCs are unlikely to navigate on the Internet to see this release and some might even find out about it when it's too late, and that's because most people still don't see cyber-crime as a real threat.