Online crime can be avoided by being 'sensible'

Becoming a victim of online crime can be avoided if people conduct themselves "sensibly", an expert has asserted. The advice from Unisys is aimed at both business users and consumers as "everyone is at risk". Vice-president of global security at the company Neil Fisher has commented that this sort of law-breaking is now an "issue of public concern". "We have seen a significant spike in the perception of proliferating online crime as a result of the financial crisis," he said. "A lot of everyday precautions are perfectly adequate to ward off normal levels of crime". He added that further guidance in how to minimise the threat was offered by his organisation's security index. Mr Fisher's comments come in the wake of a report by web security solutions provider Finjan earlier this month, which discovered a network of 1.9 million malware-infected machines. These came from the corporate, government and consumer use sectors. The hackers, a "cybergang" of six crooks, are based in the Ukraine.