Merlin the Magician
At the Start
LONDON (Reuters) - A website has been launched aimed at helping computer users avoid damage from Internet viruses and other online threats.
The government-funded IT Security Awareness for Everyone site (www.itsafe.gov.uk) will give free advice on data protection and issue virus alerts to those who sign up.
"There is a clear need for easy-to-understand and simple, independent advice for non-technically minded people who use computers," Home Office Minister Hazel Blears said in a statement on Thursday.
E-mail or text alerts will direct users towards step-by-step guides on how to deal with any problem. The site will use information provided by the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre (NISCC).
More than half of UK households had a home computer in 2002, according to the Office for National Statistics.
In the third quarter of 2004, 52 percent of UK households could access the Internet from home, compared with just nine percent in the same quarter of 1998