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Security begins at home

Editorial Type: Comment     Date: 03-2014    Views: 1669   






By Ray Smyth, Editor, Network Computing

You may have heard the mainstream media reports of advice recently issued by Europol warning that people should not send sensitive information while using public Wi-Fi hotspotsI had assumed that we all already knew that: isn't that rule one, page one? Life is full of surprises and contradictions, especially when human motivations are at play.

It was thought-provoking when in mid-March we were all reminded that it was the 25th anniversary of the invention of the World Wide Web by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Can any of us who depend upon it today remember what life was like before? I certainly remember looking at it in its early days and thinking that it would not catch on unless there was a lot more easily available content to be found on easily accessed devices - the very definition of “be careful what you wish for”!

Characteristically thoughtful, Sir Tim has said that we are at a crossroads and need to make a choice. Will we continue on the road that allows the Government more and more control - and more and more surveillance - or will we acknowledge that the worldwide web has become such an important component in our lives that it ranks alongside human rights? In which case, he says, we collectively need to establish a set of values which Sir Tim characterised by referring to the Bill of Rights and Magna Carta.

Surely if we break the law we must expect to be subjected to surveillance and investigation, and in my view it is equally reasonable to expect that if we are generally law abiding then our lives deserve some level of privacy, free from snooping and prying eyes. Without doubt there is a grey area between these two positions, but this should never be filled with the kind of mass surveillance claimed in the leaks by Edward Snowden. That being said, when it comes to our business organisations and private lives we should take ownership of our own level of care and personal responsibility: this should not be something that is confined to your favourite burger joint or coffee house. The roots of privacy and data security start with each and every one of us knowing the risks we take when viewing, sending or saving data. Thus has it ever been.

Ray Smyth - Editor, Network Computing
Ray.Smyth@BTC.CO.UK | https://twitter.com/ItsRay

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