A basic understanding of how Internet risks occur helps to place any Internet safety advice in context. Once you identify which factors have a greater impact on you and your family, you can adapt recommendations to your specific needs.
Take a moment to consider each of the six factors that contribute to the current online environment:Lack of knowledge. Consumers of every age and at every level of technical expertise lack broad online safety education. This lack of knowledge is not limited to young people, but extends to the general population, including computer specialists who may not know any more than others about online predatory behavior.Carelessness. Even when we ‘know better,’ we make mistakes. Usually those mistakes occur when we’re tired, rushed, or don’t have a complete understanding of the risks involved. This is especially true when there is no obvious cause and effect to help us correct our behavior. When you post information that is used a month later to rob your home, you are not likely to recognize a connection between the two events. In fact, the vast majority of victims of online crime will not recognize that an action they or someone else took online made them vulnerable to a criminal act.Unintentional exposure of (or by) others. It may be a teacher, school, parent, child, friend, employer, or after-school program that provides publicly accessible information that exposes you. Perhaps your own computer (or mobile phone, or other connected device) has been compromised with spyware that enables criminals to collect your personal information. Maybe when a friend’s computer or other Internet-enabled device was lost or stolen, your information fell into the wrong hands.Technology Flaws. Online products and services can expose consumers – either because the companies who offer them fail to secure their customers’ data and are hacked, or because a company fails to build in adequate safeguards and safety messaging into their product to protect consumers.Holes in consumer protection standards. We cannot place the full burden of online safety on consumers.
