Most of us would not dream of leaving our car door unlocked.
We would not leave our wallet unattended in public. Too many of us, however, are doing exactly that with our smartphones and computers. In cyber terms, the front door is ajar and there is a sign on it saying: "Open house, come on in."
Those who have experienced cyber crime - finding unexpected purchases on their credit card or discovering that their computer has been maliciously infected with a nasty virus - know how infuriating it is. Those who have not received a shock bill for a new plasma screen TV or had some unknown hacker send an obscene message to everyone in their address book, may think of it as something that happens to other people. Bad mistake. One survey suggests 16% of people have lost at least £500 from having their card details stolen and used over the internet. Losing all your cash because you were too absorbed watching zany cat videos to update your online security settings is a hard lesson.
So the Government's warning to ensure passwords are secure and to accept prompts to update security software, is very, very good advice.
The skateboarding cats can wait.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
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