Everyday there are announcements on some problems of e-banking users, leakages of either personal data or confidential or secret information, defacing an important website, spamming, phishing or other e-mail frauds. Almost everyone may be a Web user (there are projects being conducted, like “Wireless Poznań” that will offer Internet access to persons who have not purchased such one from any provider).

But not all users are sufficiently aware of security threats. It is obvious that not everyone may be an IT security specialist – for the majority of users a computer is merely a useful tool that makes it easier to do work or to realize hobbies of a quite different nature. On the other hand – anyone who uses Internet to communicate should know some basic principles of behavior, should be able to detect the most obvious threats and protect himself or herself against them.

The members of PSNC Security Team, who face network security threats every day, perform a number of different tasks. Among others, they share their knowledge and experience with the users – according to the principle “prevention is better than cure”. On December 9, the teachers of Economical Secondary School in Poznań organized a meeting of pupils attending IT technician classes with Gerard Frankowski, the representative of PSNC. Gerard introduced Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center as a leading Polish research entity, and – what is crucial for those who are just going to draw their careers – an attractive place to realize own professional goals in the IT area. The main part of the meeting, however, was the presentation devoted to the promotion of best security practices for a Web user. The lecture covered, among others, using services sufficiently protected with cryptographic tunnels, applying (and remembering!) strong passwords, proper finishing of the activity in Web, protection against phishing, the issues related to illegal content.

The organizers agreed to prolong the meeting to almost two hours – due to numerous questions asked by the participants. The questions mainly concerned particular facets of protecting the users, systems and networks against network attacks, or some specifics of working within a security team. Even after the official end of the meeting several interested pupils stayed within the room to ask the lecturer individually.

Another meeting of this type is scheduled to 12 January, 2011 – this time it will be handled in Communications Secondary School in Poznań. Similar events allow not only to protect the users from numerous Web threats, but also to promote Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center. Maybe thanks to them we will meet some of the today’s auditors sitting behind the next desk?