As we join the world online, are we secure?

Many Kenyan internet users have no difficulty filling out any kind of web form with their correct details because there are no perceived threats on the landscape as yet and the capacity to transact online is yet to be fully realised; elements which won’t exist in a year’s time, experts predict.

In fact, at this point, many reading this in Kenya would probably consider a decent antivirus or PC protection suite an unnecessary expense which will not do much but slow the machine down and are happy to use freeware or pirated or cracked software, blissfully ignorant of the importance of valid updates or threat signatures that come with installing genuine security products or the fact that most downloadable freeware will more often than not be spyware out to target your machine.

It won’t be long before the most enterprising nation in East Africa comes to grip with the magnanimity of what the internet can do both good and bad.

Musalia works with Symantec Corporation.