By Rob Forsyth

Why should you be interested in the message of e-security week?

Let's imagine, for a moment, that you are already familiar with the many risks on the internet. Your employer is running good software at your email and web gateways. Your HR department regularly gives you sound security advice, such as not opening unexpected attachments, even from people you trust. (How do you know they really sent it?)

You have an active firewall; you use strong passwords and protect them; you bank using two-factor authentication; and you don't surf to internet sites that aren't related to your business. You're protecting yourself, and you realise that at the same time you are protecting the next guy, too, through responsible internet citizenship.

So what could possibly go wrong? Anything and everything.

What about internet users who are less well-informed? Many of our concerns about the internet today relate to the young, who have little on-line experience, but apparently unlimited on-line opportunity. We know that the risk and opportunity are on a collision course. We read terrifying tales about child pornography, we hear of webcams in bedrooms, and words like "grooming" have entered our internet vocabulary.

In addition to this vulnerable group, there are the older members of our community, many of whom are internet newbies. With the closure of many suburban banks and the rise of internet banking fraud, this group is understandably apprehensive about e-security, or the lack of it.

At a recent discussion in Canberra, a member of the Australian High Tech Crime Centre suggested that the worldwide revenue from cybercrime is now more than $100 billion per year, with up to $60 billion of this down to one organisation, the so-called Russian Business Network, or RBN. This is the extent to which organised crime has embraced the internet.

The RBN gains its revenue through various forms of fraud such as 419 scams (also called Nigerian scams); pump-and-dump share market manipulation; fake lottery wins; the collection and sale of bank and credit card account details; identity theft; the illegal sale of legal drugs; and more.

You may not be the most likely victim of this sort of online crime. The most likely victims are the vulnerable members of your family. But the target of the cybercriminals is, quite simply, anybody and everybody. And as security technology evolves, so do their attacks.

This means that technology cannot save you, or the rest of your family, against all possible internet threats. To win this battle we need three things:

* Strong but simple, security software.

* Good legislation and enforcement, both local and global.

* Ongoing education -- such as E-security Week.

We all want a safe place for our families and extended families. We want Australia to be prosperous and part of the information revolution. To be globally competitive, we want a fast and secure internet to support commerce and jobs in the future. We probably also want lower taxes and bank fees.

E-security does, indeed, matter.

Rob Forsyth is Managing Director of Sophos Asia Pacific and Deputy Chairman of the Internet Industry Association, Australia - a national internet industry association which provides policy input to government and advocacy on a range of business and regulatory issues. Prior to joining Sophos in 2001, Forsyth spent five years with the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games as workforce planning and industrial relations program manager, where he was in charge of more than 180,000 paid, volunteer and contract positions.

Sophos Asia Pacific is an official partner of the National E-security Awareness Week.

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Visit www.StaySmartOnline.gov.au for details and step by step information on e-security.