Almost three-quarters of the British population don’t know how to recognise a secured website.
The survey, by online bingo portal WhichBingo.co.uk, asked players how they determined which sites they could trust with their credit card details and other personal information. Only 27% of the 250 respondents were aware of the Security Certificates used by websites to protect private information that is passed from the end-user to the merchant.
Alex is right on. I work at a university campus, and when I ask someone what browser they use, I get a blank look. The only thing most know is they click on the “e” to access the internet.
Only 27% of the 250 respondents were aware of the Security Certificates used by websites to protect private information that is passed from the end-user to the merchant.
I’m far more concerned about where, why and how the actual sites are storing & using my credit card details, passwords and other sensitive information.
It’s possible, albeit unlikely that the information will be intercepted, it’s far more likely that their server(s) will be compromised in some way.
PCI compliance has helped this situation a little by making companies more aware of the risks, but from experience the number of developers that store card details in sessions or don’t salt user passwords is staggeringly high, and as a security auditor I’m normally not very impressed.
That’s true, but the other reason IE6 still exists in corporates is due to their internal software(s) being made to run through what they had, and now there is too much change that needs to happen, it will take them a long time to port all of that junk through to what should be “cross-compatible” and standards compliant code, not just catering for their one bogus browser.
They will get there though, just not in the forseeable future
You are right, security online is vital due to the fact that most web users are not 100% literate when it comes to computers in general, so you can’t expect them to notice subtle things like a “padlock” or that a site is running on a validated domain with a certificate.
I disagree, it’s because people don’t understand technology that fraud, phishing and viruses are rampant on the web (and why millions of computers are zombies), it’s also why IE6 still exists and businesses refuse to upgrade. Ignorance has caused more long-term damage to the industries progression than any other factor.
I don’t think it’s funny, I think it’s scary… if 90% of people don’t know what a browser is… what the heck does that say for the future of our industry
