UK Online Safety Act sparks greater privacy awareness
The UK’s Online Safety Act has already led to controversy in a number of areas, but it seems that, on a positive note, it may have helped drive a growing level of privacy awareness among internet users.
New research from AstrillVPN shows a surge in searches related to privacy tools. Data breach checker ‘Have I Been Pwned’ has topped the list of the UK’s most searched online privacy tools, receiving an average of 67,542 monthly searches.
In addition ‘Incognito mode’ accounted for 38,650 monthly searches while ‘Tor browser’ clocked up 33,217. The generic term ‘phishing’ earned more than 21,000 searches per month, reflecting anxiety about online scams, phone scams, and cyber threats.
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Passwords have seen the most interest overall, with more than 100,000 combined monthly searches for how to change them across various sites, including ‘Change Apple ID password’ at 5,333 and ‘Change Gmail password’ at 5,150.
Arqam Zafar, marketing director at AstrillVPN, says:
These search trends show British internet users are privacy-conscious. The high volume of searches for data breach checks and password changes indicates people understand that they are at risk online, but may not be fully aware of how to protect themselves.
I like to think of online security like it’s a house. If you imagine your password is the key to your front door, you might treat it differently. For example, many people store passwords in browsers, but if you are infected with malware, or someone gains access to your computer, they will have access to everything you have saved. To go back to the previous analogy, it’s like leaving your house keys on the windowsill of an open window.
It’s a common belief that swapping characters in passwords will be enough, but changing things such as the word ‘Password’ to ‘Pa$$w0rd’ is a practice more common than you may think. Passphrases are a much more secure option. If you are struggling to create one, take random words and create phrases from them, such as ‘Chocolate monster kitten’. This strategy is easy to remember, but tough to crack.
You can read more on the AstrillVPN blog.
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