Britain Launches Internet Virus Alert Service

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain launched a Web site on Thursday aimed at helping computer users avoid damage from Internet viruses and other online threats.

The government-funded IT Security Awareness for Everyone site (www.itsafe.gov.uk) will give free advice on data protection and issue virus alerts to those who sign up.

"There is a clear need for easy-to-understand and simple, independent advice for non-technically minded people who use computers," Home Office Minister Hazel Blears said in a statement.

E-mail or text alerts will direct users toward step-by-step guides on how to deal with any problem. The site will use information provided by the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Center (NISCC).

More than half of UK households had a home computer in 2002, according to the Office for National Statistics.

In the third quarter of 2004, 52 percent of UK households could access the Internet from home, compared with just nine percent in the same quarter of 1998.

Copyright © 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ExtremeTech.