Thursday, October 23, 2008

CopyRouter: an ethical efficient security tool or a personal privacy violation structure?

Recently an Australian company, Brilliant Digital Entertainment Ltd., has marketed in the US a new controversial deep packet inspection technology called CopyRouter, which allows ISPs to check every file passing through their network. In fact, this technology can inspect "every image, every movie, every document attached to an email or found in a Web search, to see if it matches a list of illegal images from a law enforcement agency. This tool has stimulated a world wide open discussion about the ethical use of personal information when the company caught the attention of New York's attorney general, who has been pressing Internet companies to block child porn. He encouraged a technical discussion among larger IT companies with the aiming at strategies/tools to ways to fight child porn.
Now, since internet has always been an “open space” which, at least in general, should be a neutral instrument, objections have been raised by various privacy advocates urging that monitoring all ISP traffic would be an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.
I would ask comments about this system and the potential use that can be done.
Thanks!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Eyes on the Future - Rochester NY - Oct. 10th 2008 - Gov. David Paterson

The NY governor delivered his speech at the Eyes on the Future summit, hosted by Greater Rochester Enterprise and the Small Business Council of Rochester, at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford. Paterson's messages essentially were: Don't expect a bailout from Albany (he's been saying for months) and New York has to "say no for a change."
Interesting was the remark related to the connection between the Wall Street mechanisms and the amount of money NY State makes through it (through the Wall Street physical presence in the State). This means that in this period of crisis NYS has been more affected then other States.
My questions: good intentions and great speech, but will he be able to deal with the nation wide financial crisis and how consistent is the incentive programme for small/middle size business in Upstate NY? I wait for your comments.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Security Procedures for Social Networks

Internet opens up a world of possibilities for us and our children. It's a great place to learn, play, share and grow. However there are people who could represent a potential threat to us and our communities.
That’s why security must be a priority.
We need to know how to protect our family from cyber attacks and be prepared to do it. Education and communication are our first defense against online offender.

There are dozens of security manuals on line which could be suitable to give us basic knowledge about how face up correctly these issues.

From the service provider side (social networks, web sites, on line service environments, etc.) you would like to be protected through a range of security tools, like:
last generation hi tech filters to filter communications through the site. The filters are usually used to provide electronic shields against offenders and wrongdoers. We can call it "Passive Security".
Service provider staff to monitor activities, contents and chat, receive and analyze reports of misconduct and provide personalized player support. This aspect of security can be called "Active".
Both active and passive security are extremely important because the combination of the electronic and human factor is the winning formula in order to reduce the cyberattacks.


How to improve our security on line then?
Promoting security awareness through parents to review the safety precautions with their children. Security can be largely improved with family cooperation. Internet is a great communication tool but potentially unsafe too if not correctly handled. I encourage indeed parents to review the following safety measures with their children:
Never give out personal information, such as your real name, age, location, phone number or school.
Never share your password with anyone except your parents. Someone else might use your password and pretend to be you, give out your personal information or do something that may get you into trouble.
Tell your parents if someone says or does something on the Internet that makes you uncomfortable, or if someone asks you for personal information.
Choose a user name that does not reflect your real identity. Avoid names that are in any way suggestive, even if they seem innocent to you.
Avoid chat rooms that are not monitored by moderators.

These suggestions come from years of experience and good practice. I am trying to refine the security procedures for social network and I have been hired recently to do that. My desire is sharing these recommendations in order to have a cleaner and safer Internet!