The government will launch a major initiative with businesses today (Thursday) to educate the public and small companies about IT security.

The Get Safe Online project will teach people how to guard against internet threats, with an easy-to-understand, plain English web site and a series of roadshows throughout the UK.

Cabinet Office minister John Hutton will launch the scheme at an event in London, and explain how better IT security knowledge can reduce the impact of online ID theft and indirectly cut viruses and spam emails.

Research to be unveiled at the event will show that 52 per cent of UK computer users do not know how to protect their PCs. Some 22 per cent of users admit to opening email attachments from unknown sources, which could lead to systems being infected.

Nine private sector companies, including eBay, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Microsoft, have each donated £150,000 in cash or kind to the project.

Detective chief superintendent Sharon Lemon, head of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), says a comprehensive overview of what people need to do to secure their computers is available at www.getsafeonline.org.

‘The internet is a good place to conduct business, research and educate people, but it is being exploited by criminals,’ she told Computing. ‘With the amount of alarmism around phishing, spyware and identity theft, people might fear doing ecommerce online; this is trying to stop that.’

Lemon says an improvement in the IT security understanding of home users and small businesses could also reduce organised criminal activity online, which last year cost British businesses £2.4bn.

By improving security the NHTCU hopes there will be a reduction in the number of compromised computers taken over for botnets, used by criminals to release viruses, spread spam and launch denial-of-service attacks against businesses.

‘It will cut out a lot of opportunities for criminals to exploit machines,’ said Lemon.