'Female internet users are more vulnerable to cyber attack'

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

Guwahati, Nov 17: A day-long State Level Workshop on Internet Safety organized by Consumers’ Legal Protection Forum, Assam in association with Consumer Voice, New Delhi and GOOGLE here today.

Participants from various consumer organizations, Engineering, Magement, Law students from various educatiol institutions and universities, faculty members, voluntary and civil society organizations and common consumers from all over the state attended the workshop.

Assam State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission Justice president Anima Hazarika iugurated the workshop.  

Justice Hazarika in her speech said, “Several crimes can be committed on the internet. As the number of users of internet continued to grow worldwide every day, the safety of children and adults using internet is became a subject of great concern. You need to know how to keep yourself safe and secure in the world of internet. Make safety choices that fit your family.”

Shruti Hari, Associate Product Quality Operations of GOOGLE (India) introducing the issue said, “By using secured password, not responding the suspicious massages with persol information post and mails, recharge online deals to avoid scams, log out of public or shared computers, using a secured browsers, not sending sensitive information by E-mail, using strong password, not ignoring online warnings, installing software from trusted sources, looking before downloading, think anything before share, knowing about own E-mail settings are the main features for the regular internet users to became safe from any unwanted situations.”

Hemant Upadhaya, Advisor-IT & Telecom Consumer Voice delivering his speech on Security Café on Internet said that hackers, creating duplicate side are some of the main thread for internet users.

“In our society female internet user should be more careful. Password never be shared with anyone. We should be always being safe while shopping online. The NORTON Cyber Security firm has reported that in the year 2015, around 594 million worldwide were affected by cybercrime.”

Advocate Ajoy Hazarika, secretary Consumers’ Legal Protection Forum said that in the era of e-commerce, e-bookings and e-transactions there is a growing need for greater awareness on how to make the internet safe for users.

“Indian consumers are said to have lost around Rs. 1882 billion and only around 41% use secure password. Around 61% worry that they will be a victim of cybercrime. According to Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the numbers of internet users have gone up by more than 25% from 2001 to 2015. There were approximately 7 million internet users in the year 2001 which has grown to more than 40 million in number.”