The Hindu : National : They live dangerously on the Net

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 13, 2004

National

National

They live dangerously on the Net

By Anand Parthasarathy

BANGALORE, AUG. 12. A survey of Internet security aspects in the average Indian home has raised a cautionary signal about the surfing style of 33 per cent of users, who are below 17 years of age, some as young as five years. What they do on the Net — mostly e-mailing and chatting — may be cause for concern in terms of security and privacy. The survey was conducted by the technology analysts, IDC (India), on behalf of Symantec (India), the makers of Norton anti-virus and Net security products.

Based on visits to Internet homes in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore, as well as street and office interviews, the survey finds that about 46 per cent of the Netizens have acquired the connection within the last 12 months. This indicates that users are taking to the Internet much faster than the official figures suggest. The dial-up telephone-modem combo is still the popular means of access — over 78 per cent. The new methods of `always on' connections through cable and other broadband techniques account for another 25 per cent of homes. The survey put the number of Internet users in India at 18 million.

The worrying part is that at least one third of all home-users in India are novices in terms of security awareness. While this does not necessarily mean they are all young in years, this chunk of users likes to `live dangerously': they give away personal information, chat with strangers, leave their machines unprotected against viruses or spam.

"They either don't know or don't care," says Parijat Chakraborty, head of user research at IDC and co-author (with Nikhil Pant) of the survey report. Many of these reckless surfers fall in the primary user age group of 18 to 30. Older and wiser users, who use Net security and personal protection measures, are in many cases those who are `once bitten, twice shy,' he adds.

The other interesting finding is that while awareness of threats of viruses is quite high — over 70 per cent — the ones who do something about it are in a minority.

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