Publication details

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Online Security: Strategies for Promoting Home User Awareness
Varghese B, Furnell SM
Advances in Communications, Computing, Networks and Security Volume 7, ISBN: 978-1-84102-283-3, pp124-131, 2010
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In the current world of advanced technology, the Internet has become a part and parcel of our
everyday life, but at the same time threats and vulnerabilities are also increasing rapidly.
Studies have revealed that home users are among the primary target of attackers, so the need
for better awareness and understanding of the security aspects from the home user point of
view is the main idea behind this research. Home users need a good understanding of security
guidelines in order to achieve maximum security and to investigate the current awareness and
practices of the home user, an online survey was conducted which analysed the user awareness
about Internet security, their daily practices and their available support resources. A study was
also carried on to observe the quality of the existing security guidelines provided by the
reliable sources on the Internet. Based on analysis of results from the online survey, and
information’s gathered from different investigation, we could observe that majority of home
users were unaware about threats and vulnerabilities around them and had poor security
practices, this may be because of the home users unawareness about reliable security guidance
sources. On this ground home user security guidelines where prescribed for secure computing
and also strategies for improving the existing promotional activities regarding home user
security were prescribed.

Varghese B, Furnell SM