Panda Security launches 'Internet in Safe Hands' campaign

The campaign comes after the Spanish-headquartered IT security vendor completed a survey of several thousand internet users over 60 and discovered that 69% of users in the 60-plus age range are male, and 68% spend more than five hours a week online.

Researchers found that the most popular online activity in the age range is checking is email (100%) followed by information on leisure activities (73%) and online shopping (72%) .

Panda says that the 'Internet in Safe Hands' campaign seeks to educate and protect the whole family by offering internet security tips according to each member's common habits and online behaviours.

Whilst the results of the study indicated that use of social networks and actively commenting on blogs is not a frequent habit of most senior citizens (34% and 14%, respectively), even the use of email can put users at risk for phishing and other malware schemes.

When asked about comfort level, 65% of senior citizens claim to have average internet knowledge; 76% feel safe when surfing the web; and 44% find face-to-face training to be the most effective tool to become web savvy.

When asked what they perceive to be the most serious internet security threats, the most common answer is virus infections (95%), followed by identity theft (83%) or, more precisely, theft of email credentials and banking data.

Understandably, the security of banking transactions was also a source of concern for 67% of respondents, as well as spam for 58%.

Thirty-eight percent of the over 60 crowd said they also worried about coming into contact with strangers whilst using the internet.

Since many in the 60-plus age bracket are also grandparents, Panda says they must be mindful of children's activities on the internet.

Eleven percent of respondents over 60 acknowledged that minors use their home computers, of which 41% said they only sometimes monitor their activities and 17% do not monitor or do not know how to monitor them.

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