More Bark, New 'Byte' for Crime Dog McGruff; New Campaign Aims to Take a Bite Out of Cyber Crime
September 12 2006 - 9:35AM
PR Newswire (US)
Top Brands and Media Form Coalition to Generate Broad Public
Awareness of Information Security Issues Via TV, Radio, Print,
P-O-S and the Web WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The National
Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) today announces a new "Take a Bite
Out of Cyber Crime" public awareness campaign (
http://www.bytecrime.org/ ) funded by a coalition of private sector
partners. Featuring its popular McGruff the Crime Dog character,
the campaign will help empower and rally millions of computer and
digital device users in the battle against the continually growing
plague of computer viruses, worms, spam, spyware, phishing,
identity theft and online predators. (Logo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060912/SFTU065LOGO ) The
campaign is a joint initiative of the NCPC, a leader in crime
prevention since 1982, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, a
global organization of 2,500 senior marketers at leading
corporations, and the Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience
(FAME), a special interest group of the CMO Council. The program is
sponsored and supported by a private sector coalition of leading
brand marketers and media companies including: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC),
McAfee (NYSE:MFE), VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN), USATODAY division of
Gannett Co. (NYSE:GCI), CNET Network (NASDAQ:CNET) and Comcast
(NASDAQ:CMCSA). The coalition will soon welcome additional
marketers to help educate families, children, and teachers, as well
as small and medium-sized businesses about how to avoid falling
victim to the many blended digital threats that exist today.
"Information security has gone beyond warding off annoying spam and
hacker intrusions -- it's now about protecting our identities, and
our finances, from thieves that exist specifically to commit cyber
crime," said NCPC President and CEO Alfonso E. Lenhardt. "We look
forward to contributing our expertise and our prevention icon,
McGruff, in the fight to protect adults and children from cyber
crime." The problems are serious and widespread, according to
recent studies and reports. -- 81 percent of home computers lack
core protection (National Cyber Security Alliance) -- More than 100
million people, a third of the US population, have been affected by
data compromises over the last 18 months (NCPC) -- U.S. consumers
are more worried about identity theft and fraud than about personal
safety or terrorist attacks (CMO Council) -- Computer crime is
estimated to cost $67 billion a year (Federal Bureau of
Investigation) The McGruff Take a Bite Out of Cyber Crime campaign
will: -- Increase public awareness of the problem and drive a
majority of America's computer-using households to visit the
campaign's web site at http://www.bytecrime.org/, which will be
chock full of information, tools, and software that people can use
to help protect their digital assets and real-world identities --
Develop an extensive public service announcement campaign related
to cyber security and safety that will reach a wide audience via
print, online, radio and TV -- Distribute 500,000 educational
booklets through digital downloads and other channels -- Train
20,000 elementary and middle school students at 5,000 schools and
hundreds of boys and girls clubs -- Mobilize leading basketball,
ice hockey and soccer sports franchises to mount "Guard Your
HomeNet with McGruff" programs -- Leverage National Crime
Prevention and Computer Learning month with widely publicized
McGruff visits to a broad range of events, including the Digital
Life exposition at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New
York in October "We're excited about the impact and potential of
this coalition campaign to bring McGruff to the cyber crime scenes
of America," said Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of the CMO
Council. "McGruff is a legendary character with enduring appeal and
credibility. The media, sports franchise, education, crime
prevention and private sector partners involved in this initiative
have formidable reach and access to audiences at risk to having
their digital lives compromised. As a result, we expect to put more
bite into the fight against cyber crime in the months ahead." The
initial group of sponsors touches every corner of the technology
user community, drawing in software developers and hardware makers,
plus broadcast, online and print media. Intel ships hundreds of
millions of microprocessors every year and powers an estimated 80
percent of the world's personal computers. McAfee digital security
software protects 20 million computer users. VeriSign secures
billions of transactions per year at over 500,000 web sites. And
USA TODAY, CNET and Comcast are visited or connect with consumers
over 584 million times each year.
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060912/SFTU065LOGO
http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: The National Crime
Prevention Council CONTACT: Eric Gertsman of CMO Council,
+1-212-213-5400, ext. 204; or Michelle Boykins of The National
Crime Prevention Council, +1-202-261-4184 Web site:
http://www.bytecrime.org/
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