Opinion: Online security school now in session

The UK government is set to launch a programme to teach consumers and small businesses how to avoid online fraud and identity theft. Simon Moores wishes them the best of luck

Today marks the beginning of ID Fraud Awareness Week and it is also the week that will finally witness the launch of Get Safe Online, a Home Office-backed meeting of minds and money intended to tackle the now rampant problem of consumer and small business internet fraud.

If we can't persuade the general public to ignore the financial risks present in 0990 numbers or 'Crazy Frog' ringtones, can we persuade them to change their online behaviour instead?

With the help of BBC Top Gear's Richard Hammond, Cabinet Office Minister John Hutton and the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit's Sharon Lemon, the initiative will be a public-private partnership supported by the likes of eBay, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Microsoft and Yell.com.

Only last week, we heard how a retired teacher had £250,000 stolen from her Lloyds TSB savings account following the sale of her home. It's one of the most serious cases seen to date of identity fraud, a crime that the Home Office estimates accounts for £1.3bn stolen every year. According to police figures, computer crime alone cost UK businesses £2.4bn in the last 12 months and many sources would agree that faced by highly diversified and energetic activities of organised crime groups, this figure is more likely to rise than fall in the short term.

Writing this, I'm one of the few security columnists I know who is prepared to risk using an online bank account and that's only because I have more than one, all with different passcodes. In fact, bank interest rates are so derisory these days that what little money I do have, I'm inclined to keep away from the banks anyway but in my own view, I'm safer by not placing all my eggs in one basket.

In reality though, I'm not as secure as I like to think I am because any one of a number of Trojan keylogger programs queuing-up at the other side of my internet firewall are just waiting for the opportunity to harvest anything that looks vaguely like my bank account information, given the opportunity. Miss a patch or an antivirus update and some gang in Estonia could be living the high life, thanks to my Halifax savings account by the end of the week.

Richard Hammond, with his humour and boyish good looks, is set to be the new face of online common sense - all part of Get Safe Online's attempt to persuade people not to give away their personal and financial information over the internet to anyone who happens to ask them for it. Behind him will be companies such as eBay and Yell.com, which in partnership with the other Get Safe Online sponsors will be pushing the 'Is it Safe' message to customers and visitors at every opportunity.

Will this make a difference? It's certainly possible. After all, good information security is invariably an education problem. But encouraging common sense online is a little more of a challenge and you only have to walk into my local PC repair shop to see what I mean; much of the business is devoted to removing viruses from customers' computers.

If we can't persuade the general public to ignore the financial risks present in 0990 numbers or 'Crazy Frog' ringtones, can we persuade them to change their online behaviour instead? Over to you Richard Hammond.