This week is the seventh annual Get Safe Online week. I’ve been working with the corporate team in the build up to the event, and it’s certainly been an exciting experience!

On Monday the Edelman GSOL team attended the Get Safe Online summit event at Portcullis House in Westminster. This in itself was brilliant – setting foot in a parliamentary building and being part of the organisational team for an event there is something I’ve never done before.

During the event, several presentations were given about online safety. From police officers to bank representatives to industry officials, the Get Safe Online sponsors and supporters were out in force to raise awareness of just how important it is to practise online safety.

One presentation which struck a particular chord with me was a demonstration of just how easy it is for a criminal to hack into a smart-phone to steal the owner’s money and even identity. Malicious software can easily masquerade as a normal application, such as free additional levels to a legitimate game. Once downloaded, this malware could send premium rate messages from your phone several times a minute, rapidly building up an enormous bill and giving a very generous sum of money to a criminal. Many victims of crimes like these don’t even know they’ve been targeted until they receive their monthly bill for multiple thousands of pounds…and then it can be difficult to get that money back.

As an avid smart-phone user and a self-confessed gimmick addict, I’ve found myself really thinking about how I use my phone. Do I really need this “amazing” free new app? Can I be sure that this is a genuine app and not malware disguised as a fancy gadget? Or on another note, do I really need to check my bank balance/purchase a new dress on my phone, or can I wait until I get home and use my laptop, where I know I have a firewall, anti-spyware and anti-virus software?

Having a smart-phone is incredibly advantageous for so many reasons, but I now know I should definitely think twice about using it to purchase something online (and not just because this addiction needs to be curbed!), particularly as my phone is not as well protected as my fortress of a laptop. As for free apps, I know I will be so much more careful about checking their source before clicking download from now on.

So how safe are you when you’re using your smart-phone? Do you download apps left right and centre without really looking at their origin, and what other people have said about them? Do you have anti-virus on your phone? Do you have a password?   

There are so many questions which we should all be asking ourselves, and with criminals forever thinking of new ways to trick us, it’s so important to do everything we can to protect our computers, our phones, our money and our identities.

If you think you need to brush up your online safety knowledge, you can download the Get Safe Online Rough Guide for FREE at http://www.getsafeonline.org/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=1842. The Guide was launched this week in conjunction with Association of Chief Trading Standards Officers and the Association of Chief Police Officers. It’s a great source of information and could save you from becoming a hacker’s victim.

The whole point of Get Safe Online week is not to put people off using the internet, but to make sure that all of us use it safely, so we can continue to enjoy it. So check out the Guide and make sure you’re doing what you can to protect yourself. It’s certainly worked for me.