It's suck cyber security eggs week

In case you didn't know it, it's Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW) — on both sides of the Tasman.

Apparently, it is New Zealand's first ever Cyber Security Awareness Week. And to mark it, we have NZ's ICT Minister Amy Adams telling us all what to do, to make our homes and our businesses safe from cyber terrorists and other undesirables, everywhere.

I, personally, thought cyber security was already at the top of mind for most computer users, and that we'd been encouraging people to protect themselves for years.

Really, we've all been aware of the dangers of hacking, ever since a young Matthew Broderick almost caused World War III nearly 30 years ago, when there was still such a thing as the Soviet Union.

And while that was Hollywood fiction, the reality is with us all the time, with almost daily reminders of cyber security failures.

Threats have evolved from simple viruses through to blended threats and trojans. They've matured enough to bring down complex systems, including setting back Iran's nuclear ambitions.

So, over the years, you'd think we'd have got the message.

True, cybercrime might cost New Zealand $625 million a year, with 2000 Kiwis affected by cybercrime every day, but can the NZ government really think of anything to say this CSAW that we haven't heard before?

But, just as I once said, becausebusinesses needed to be taught how to suck eggs and be ordered to get a website to boost sales, so it seems that we must all need be taught to suck eggs with security.

Perhaps the warnings have been too frequent and we have become blasé — disinterested in protecting ourselves from the Big Bad Wolf.

Or, perhaps we should just blame the apathy on our living in an age of Sheeple, an idiocracy of stupid masses.

Why else do we have government ads telling us not to drive fast, not to drink and drive, to exercise and to eat better? If the government must tell us to fit smoke alarms in our homes, then surely it can tell us to make our PCs and similar devices secure, like it did this week.

This might seem like telling us all to suck eggs, but, sadly, it seems that we really must be told.