This week a report emerged which claimed that teenagers are not only shopping online, but they are meeting strangers in the real world too.
The report from (ISC)2 revealed that of the 1,162 pupils it surveyed, 43 per cent use the internet every day, 42 per cent have used a web cam and six per cent have posted a picture of themselves online or sent a picture to someone by text message that they would not want their family to see.
Naturally the statistics proved surprising and probably shocking for many parents, but it is a fact of the internet that us in our thirties have come to know, is a second nature for many under-twenties. In the future there will be better opportunities for people to have their “digital past” erased though, as the proposed legislation on the EU Data Protection Directive made a key change to the wording.
Responding to the (ISC)2 report, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said that it was focusing on better educating children on the value of their own personal information and it had seen 4,000 downloads of its nine lesson plans since August.
Robert Parker, head of corporate affairs at the ICO, said: “We are convinced that the education of children about these issues is crucial. Be it through the continued popularity of apps or the ubiquity of social media, our personal data has never been more in-demand. Teaching children the value of that data gives them the informational self-defence they need, not just as children, but as they become adults too.”
In another story, it was revealed that the new UK National Crime Agency (NCA) has pledged to train 400 new cyber intelligence officers over the next year. With a starting salary of £22,407, which will rise to £24,717 once they finish two years of training, this is the latest initiative to draw more skilled youngsters into the IT security realm and follows another announcement on how those with a black hat in their past may be able to get work in cyber defence.
The NCA said it will recruit cyber intelligence officers based on their potential aptitude, rather than their formal educational qualifications in order to get around the skills shortage, and would accept applications from any 18-year-old regardless of education.
While I welcome any move to get new blood into the sector, the concern I have here is whether the salary is good enough to really draw people in. After all, the (ISC)2 2013 salary survey found that the average salary is US$80,000 (£50,000), so is a salary in the low twenties going to attract and keep people in the business? I have seen great security people lured by the attraction of better wages at consultancies and vendors and if the best people emerge from this, they may find themselves popular all of a sudden.
Another story which caught my eye was the news of a new browser. While I don’t expect WhiteHat Security’s Aviator to match the use of Internet Explorer or Google Chrome, the concept of a security-developed browser is very interesting and unique. WhiteHat’s security evangelist Robert Hansen said that Aviator includes the ability to remove ads and tracking, sandboxed tabs and removed URLs to protect privacy.
The news reminded me of Kaspersky’s announcement about its development of its own operating system, and maybe proves that after all of the scare stories of how unsecure some software is, it is better to do it yourself after all.
