Government says public is aware of Internet downfalls

The public is increasingly aware of the importance of Internet safety, the Cabinet's Science and Technology Advisory Group (STAG) said yesterday.

"From Oct. 1 to Nov. 30 this year [2007], STAG's `2007 National Information Security Promotion Web site' received 26,579 visits, an 85 percent increase from the previous year," STAG researcher Dai Yuan-fung (戴元峰) said.

The Web site offers a questionnaire on 20 topics, including money wiring, phishing scams and information trading, Dai said. He added that, as was the case in 2006, visitors were found to be most familiar with the dangers posed by computer viruses and efforts to intercept Internet passwords.

"Phishing" refers to attempts to fraudulently acquire sensitive information via electronic communication.

"Taiwanese citizens improved most in their understanding of intellectual property rights and Internet money transaction security," he said.

Dai Internet users seemed to be more proactive than in 2006.

"For example, although the accuracy rates for answering virus and firewall-related questions were only 91.2 percent and 72.8 percent respectively, the percentages of people with [antivirus and firewall] software installed on their computers were 91.8 percent and 90.3 percent respectively," he said.

Drawing sections in the questionnaire in which those who took the test received the lowest scores, Dai said STAG would focus its efforts on broadening users' knowledge of Web site safety certificates, cookies, e-signatures and phishing.

"In addition, it was found that while people working in the information technology industry performed best on the questionnaire, people in the service sector received the lowest scores," he said.

"It is clear we have to make Internet safety common knowledge for the entire online population," Dai said.