SECURITY SANS FRONTIERS


In many countries around the World, access to the Internet is seen as a basic right, and so it should be.    Those countries which have done so to date include :  Estonia, France,  Spain,  Greece  and Finland,  which was actually the first to do so in June 2010.  (http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/642/internet-access-should-be-a-human-right)  I

In fact the United Nations recently declared Internet access as a human right. (http://www.itproportal.com/2011/06/04/un-declares-internet-access-as-a-human-right/)

Obviously the next challenge is to build the infrastructure and provide the means of access.    But that is the subject of a separate discussion.

So the “World”  has woken up to the importance of closing the digital divide and has also realized the importance of the Internet, and access to it,  to the functioning of society.   Amongst the many momentous events of the last twelve months which have included epochal scenes such as the Arab Spring, the new Financial crisis ( Greece / Euro) and most recently the London riots - what has also made headlines globally has been the spate of cyber attacks and hacking which have damaged (and embarrassed) some very large corporations like Sony and RSA and large Governmental and NGO’s like the CIA and the NATO.    This has been coupled with the emergence of online activism dubbed ‘hacktivism’  (the online equivalent of protesting in Tahrir square) – lead by the likes of Anonymous and Lulzsec.   These high profile events and the associated media coverage has raised the issue of online safety, security (and privacy) and exposed just how vulnerable users of the Internet ( i.e. all of us ) are,   to becoming victims of cybercrime ranging from phishing,  pharming, ID theft and,  in the case of businesses, DDoS.

So it is all very well giving people access to the Internet.  Once they have access they need to be safe.   There is the risk that we create another ‘ digital divide’ .  This time the divide between those who can afford adequate online security and those who cannot.   We have called this the ‘security divide’.   There are those who are well informed about online security (most people reading this article would fall into that category) and those who haven’t a clue (the majority of people out there.)    But there are also those who do understand the issues but cannot afford the prices being charged by most security vendors.

In the spirit of trying to bridge the ‘ security divide’ we have embarked on a program of making LiveEnsureTM available,  to those organizations (who themselves have become soft targets for hackers ) like charities,  not-for-profits,  social enterprises and indeed small start-ups,  for free.

We have called this initiative ‘ security sans frontiers’.   If your organization requires its users to log-in or if it takes donations online  (in other words if you need to protect your users by ensuring your site does not get hacked) and you think your organization qualifies then please sign up at http://www.liveensure.com today.   Access to the Internet is and should be a basic human right but so too should safe access to the Internet be.

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