Many home computers not secure: AFP

9 Sep 2009, 2:56 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Fewer than half of all home computer users protect their systems from viruses, cyber-crime and other hacking, a leading federal police officer says.

Fewer than half of all home computer users protect their systems from viruses, cyber-crime and other hacking, a leading federal police officer says.

Commander Neil Gaughan has told a parliamentary committee that awareness of cyber-crime is severely lacking across the country.

"They don't ensure that their software is up to date," Cmdr Gaughan told the committee on Wednesday.

"You've got to continually update these things."

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) was keenly aware of the many problems technology was creating.

"Technology will continue to propose many problems for the AFP," he told the committee.

Cmdr Gaughan mentioned the growing trend of hacking into social networking websites, such as Facebook, where hackers are now stealing identities and money.

From December, Australia will take on leadership of the Virtual Global Taskforce, a multinational group that works to keep children and others safe online.

The AFP is in "regular dialogue" with large-scale anti-virus companies, such as McAfee, but one of the problems is that "there are so many internet service providers in this country".

A change in culture was needed, he said, to turn people from being ambivalent about internet security to being aware of the need to check for software upgrades regularly.

"We see education as actually the key. The end user is actually the weakest link," Cmdr Gaughan said.

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