Cyber security for home users: A new way of protection through awareness enforcement

Abstract

Abstract:We are currently living in an age, where the use of the Internet has become second nature to millions of people. Not only do businesses depend on the Internet for all types of electronic transactions, but more and more home users are experiencing the immense benefit of the Internet.However, this dependence and use of the Internet bring new and dangerous risks. This is due to increasing attempts from unauthorised third parties to compromise private information for their own benefit -the whole wide area of cyber crime.It is therefore essential that all users understand the risks of using the Internet, the importance of securing their personal information and the consequences if this is not done properly.It is well known that home users are specifically vulnerable, and that cyber criminals have such users squarely in their target. This vulnerability of home users are due to many factors, but one of the most important ones is the fact that such home users are in many cases not aware of the risks of using the Internet, and often venture into cyber space without any awareness preparation for this journey.This paper specifically investigates the position of the home user, and proposes a new model, The E-Awareness Model (E-AM), in which home users can be forced to acquaint themselves with the risks involved in venturing into cyber space. The E-AM consists of two components : the awareness component housed in the E-Awareness Portal, and the enforcement component.This model proposes a way to improve information security awareness amongst home users by presenting some information security content and enforcing the absorption of this content.The main difference between the presented model and other existing information security awareness models, is that in the presented model the acquiring/absorption of the awareness content is compulsory -the user is forced to proceed via the E-Awareness Portal without the option of bypassing it.

The urgent need for an enforced awareness programme to create internet security awareness in nigeria

“…Kritzinger and Von Solms [6] classify personal Internet users into two categories: Home Users (HUs) and Non Home Users (NHUs).…”

“…This also means that ignoring and not addressing the human issues of security through proper awareness initiatives and solutions would lead to these security issues not being addressed. M ost customers feel that security is solely the responsibility of a third party, for instance, the government, websites, banks, or IT professionals [6]. People need to be educated about information security so that they can protect themselves from these security threats.…”

“…It could be in form of a video, in person training or specialised online training. This type of programme is usually organised by private sector organisations and government bodies [6].…”

A Taxonomy of Attacks and a Survey of Defence Mechanisms for Semantic Social Engineering Attacks

“…Furthermore SNS were able to provide the means to measure effectiveness of applications in a social media environment by monitoring the response of subsequent user activity such as public/private access to profiles. Other developments have taken awareness efforts further through web-based/portal training systems, even by introducing proxy based training such as "awareness middleware" for access to the internet [Kritzinger and von Solms 2010]. The middleware in this sense is a proxy training portal, responsible for brokering a connection between the user and internet access.…”

An Assessment of the Security and Transparency Procedural Components of the Estonian Internet Voting System

“…Such a campaign should be grounded in best practice [23,24] and focused on raising public awareness of the range of risks as well as how they might be mitigated. For instance, mitigation via secure practices such as updating antivirus solutions (though the current value of anti-virus might be debatable, it is a still a first line of defence [25]).…”