The Hindu Business Line : Security 2.0 era is now upon us

Safety rules
Netizens must cultivate the `right attitude' to remain safe.
Experts' advice: avoid shareware sites, delete malicious e-mail immediately and browse only legitimate sites.

Bangalore , July 14

Security 2.0, the revolution of more intelligent and aware security, has begun in India.

The Internet is being reborn as version 2.0, with features such as sharing, blogging and democracy of information gaining momentum.

RISK PROFILES

Parallel to this, security over the Web is being given a makeover. Technology and software is no longer the focus. Experts say netizens need to cultivate the `right attitude' to remain safe.

"The culture of security needs to be inculcated in India.

Gadgets, tools and protection are not enough. Individuals must draw up and assess their risk profiles," advises Mr Niraj Kaushik, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Trend Micro India.

Risk profiles can be created by taking into consideration the computing environment the individual accesses daily, activity (downloads, in particular) on the Internet, and finally what level of sharing has been enabled on the PC, he explained.

Freebie sites are danger zones, warns Mr Kaushik. Songs downloaded off free ringtone sites are actually viruses that spread via your mobile to your contacts using SMS. Permutations and combinations of spam (unsolicited e-mail), viruses and phishing (fraud involving replicas of legitimate sites that draw vital information from unsuspecting users) sites are also netting ignorant netizens. Botnets (an army of PCs used for malicious purpose via remote control) have also begun to hit India.

Experts' advice: avoid shareware sites, delete malicious e-mail immediately and browse only legitimate sites.

Software to aid surfers

Symantec is working to offer two software soon, SafeSearch and SafeBrowse, which will aid surfers to recognise illegitimate sites, informs Mr Anil Chakravarthy, Vice-President, India Technical Operations, Veritas Software India. Veritas is a subsidiary of Symantec Corporation, the maker of Norton Antivirus.

Another software the firm's research lab in Pune is working on will offer users the equivalent of a `vault' on their computing devices.

This software would use 32 or 64-bit encryption to store confidential information such as passport number and land registration numbers.

Additional software, encryption and passwords, says Mr Chakravarthy, must be adopted wherever possible.