Information Security Week in Quebec

At a press conference earlier today, the Quebec provincial government officially launched the Information Security and Personal Information Protection Week.

Partners include government departments and Crown corporations such as Hydro Québec and Loto Québec as well as private sector groups (Groupe Vidéotron, Mouvement Desjardins, National Bank, Groupe CGI, etc.).

All week long, there will be activities surrounding the issues of identity theft and protection of personal information on the Web.

For those who understand French, there will be online panel discussions on the blog of ISIQ, the Institut pour la sécurité de l'information (Information Security Institute), a public-private partnership.

As part of the launch, the government today released results of a survey of 1070 regular Internet users in Quebec aged 14 years and up conducted on its behalf by Léger Marketing between March 12 and 26, 2007:

• A majority have the tools to protect their personal data: anti-virus software 89%, firewalls 74%, anti-spyware software 59%
• 45% of respondents have been the target of Net attacks in one shape or another and 5% claim to have fallen victim to identity theft which, in 26% of cases caused damage to their reputation or financial damage (59% of theft cases)
• 37% admit to sharing access to their computer (i.e. revealing their password) with family, friends, work colleagues and roommates
• Finally, 61% recognize that information security is mostly their responsibility or a shared responsibility, vs. only 8% that see it as primarily a government duty