One in five UK internet users are worried about security

ONE FIFTH OF UK INTERNET USERS are not confident that they have the skills to secure their own systems and protect their own data.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has just completed a survey of internet use and found that around 20 per cent of respondents shared concerns that they do not have the necessary skills to protect themselves.

This, when you consider that around 77 per cent of the UK is connected to the internet, is quite a lot of people. This lack of confidence about personal security could have had an impact on the remaining 23 per cent of the population, according to the ONS, which added that 50 per cent of these have no intention to go online, ever.

Security breaches, high profile hacks, spam, the proliferation of advertising, malware, trolling, rudeness and online scammers might be the reasons for users' lack of confidence in their own skills, but perhaps it is also a failing of the UK educational system.

Hoping to solve this, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is calling for data privacy and rights to be covered in school curriculums. The ICO has started a research project that will see it investigate how to cover the topic in schools and added that it wants to ensure that young people, who spend so much of their time online, are well versed in their rights.

"Young people today are growing up in an age where an ever increasing amount of information is held about them. It is vital that they understand their privacy rights and how to exercise them," said Jonathan Bamford, head of strategic liaison at the ICO.

"By being aware of their rights to access information, young people will feel more empowered to ask important questions about the things that matter to them.... While we appreciate that some information rights issues are already covered in specific subjects encompassing IT and law, we want to see a move towards schools embedding information rights issues as part of the mainstream education process - giving young people skills that will serve them well throughout their adult lives."

The ICO added that around two thirds of young internet users in the UK are not aware of the privacy policies of the social networking web sites that they use. µ