Posted: 27th Oct, 2005 By: MarkJ
UPDATE: Apparently it costs between £50K and £150K to join, hardly affordable for the smaller ISP. The government backed "
Get Safe Online" initiative, which aims to educate surfers in the ways of online security, has launched and already been criticised for its lack of ISP support:
BT is the only ISP to have signed up so far for the Get Safe Online scheme which launches later this week and that has caused some to question the effectiveness of the initiative.
However, a spokesman for the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) said this isn't the fault of the ISPs, claiming Get Safe Online has actually shunned any interest from the service providers so far.
The spokesman said: "We know it's silly not to have ISPs involved. But this isn't our fault. Two weeks ago we spoke to Get Safe Online and asked for information we could communicate to our members but we were asked not to. As a result we've not been able to publicise this to any of our members," he added.*hits head against wall*
Congratulations to whoever came up with the idea of such an initiative and then failed to recognise the obvious importance of getting ISP's involved from all over the country.
The importance of this is echoed strongly by the results of a survey timed to coincide with the initiative:
87% - say protecting their PC is a top priority
52% - have little or no knowledge of PC safety
42% - ask friends and family for computer security advice
40% - feel most at risk from card fraud in their day-to-day life
28% - update security software weekly
20% - do not have anti-virus software
22% - open e-mail attachments from strangers
38% - plan to shop online this ChristmasMore @
BBC News Online.