This highly debated issue was once again raised a few weeks ago, but may not be as simple as planned.

According to the Telegraph, David Cameron is set to announce plans that will block access to adult Web material on the public places, such as cafes and train stations. However, locations deemed to be exclusively for adults, such as casinos, will not have the restriction imposed upon them.

This action comes after pressure from children’s charities for an introduction of a ‘blanket ban’ on access to inappropriate sites on public Wi-Fi.

In theory, this sounds fantastic; no child (and arguably no adult) should have to be exposed to graphic or inappropriate Web content in a public place, but it may not be as straightforward as simply blocking access.

As of now, it is unclear if the responsibility for implementing these Web access restrictions will be that of the ISP or if it will be up to the shop or area that provides the Wi-Fi.

No matter which approach is chosen, they are both going to face very similar issues.

1. New sites to bypass Web filters are popping up every hour, and so it’s becoming increasingly easy to bypass the majority of Web filters that now rely on URL databases to filter content.

2. Just over 10 years ago, before the introduction of 3G enabled mobile devices, filtering Wi-Fi would have been enough to ensure users’ Web access was restricted. Now, however, the majority of people will have some sort of 3G enabled device, and if being filtered on Wi-Fi can quite easily switch to 3G and browse the Internet freely.

So, what are the solutions?

1. If the responsibility to filter Web traffic does fall on the individual shops etc., then they will need to use a Web filtering solution that doesn’t solely rely on a URL list, but one that that can categorise, and subsequently filter content in at the point of request, and in real-time. This means that any attempts to access new anonymous proxy sites will be denied, and any inappropriate sites that are not yet on the URL database can also be categorised and blocked.

2. The issue of users surfing freely on 3G is a much harder issue to combat, however, and will require these organisations to think further than just relying on Web filtering solutions.  Instead, they may need to think about introducing legal policies that visitors to the shop/area must comply with to be allowed to use their mobile devices off-network. An approach that may be viewed as oppressive by some, but if these organisations are required to provide a safe environment for children, then it may indeed be a starting point!

As with many issues surrounding Web filtering, it does extend beyond what solution should be used, and also concerns the education of Web users to ensure they are aware of the risks and issues surrounding their browsing.

What do you think about David Cameron’s plans? As a consumer, do you think you should be allowed unrestricted Web access in public places? Or do you agree with his policies to ensure children are protected? Let us know in the comments below, or tweet us @bloxx to speak your mind.

If you want to find out more about BYOD or mobile device filtering after reading Ollie’s thoughts, visit the mobile device Web filtering page on our website.

BYOD vs. School Supplied Technology

Whether its Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT), Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or Bring Your Own Browser (BYOB) the idea of getting students (and staff) to bring their laptops, tablets or smartphone into school is one that is gaining traction in some part of the world and is also starting to take off in parts of the UK.

The biggest mistake that some schools are making here is that they see it as a cost saving measure rather than one that will have an impact on learning.

Indeed, BYOD is flawed in many ways firstly it assumes that students have a device to bring in the first place (and that they will be allowed to), secondly it assumes that your teaching staff are prepared to facilitate learning in a 1:1 environment (where each child has an internet enabled device) and finally, it assumes that the facilitation of learning is an easy task where each child has a different type of device (even though each device has a web browser).

The truth of the matter is that good teaching within the world of 1:1 is a tricky business and even some of our best teachers are still trying to develop pedagogy where the technology both enhances and helps stretch students in all aspects of the curriculum.

Another important point to remember is that BYOD is not actually new, it’s been happening in ‘stealth’ for years. Whether it’s been a personal video camera, phone camera, memory stick, calculator, video recorder or a large PowerPoint presentation created and then shown on a staff owned laptop. Both staff and students are used to bringing in their own property and using it in schools.

The big difference is up until now the use of these devices has been fairly ‘ad-hoc’ and the latest trend seems to be a more formalised approach to bringing privately owned devices into schools. Particularly, more powerful devices such as laptops and tablets.

It is almost inevitable that schools will move to BYOD sooner rather than later but that doesn’t mean we should be dismissing school supplied technology all together. Actually quite the opposite and there will always specialist situations within schools (eg: a technical drawing lab) where high-specification machines will be required to cope with industry standard software.

Rather than rush into a badly thought out BYOD roll out, schools who wish to move towards models of 1:1 both quickly and effectively could also consider models of leasing. My preference for leasing models are the frameworks where the responsibility of the leasing of the devices falls to the individual families. The power of creative leasing models are that you can still give families choice of what they lease (the device) but at the same time making sure you have a unified operating system. Increasingly, we also need to remember that operating system might be the browser itself (eg: Google Chrome).

Think about: if you really want to promote BYOD the first thing to do is to allow students to use their mobile phones as companion devices. Then investigate the range of low risk leasing options available to schools such as Apples iStudent and Microsoft’s Shape the Future. If student owned devices are not 3G enabled (eg: they are going to have to connect to your school network) you need to make sure that they are able to do this and you have permission from everyone to allow this to happen - its a bit more complicated than it sounds.

This year, our focus is on showing you how we can ‘future proof’ your organisation’s Web filtering and security.

Come along to stand H71 and find out how our dynamic content filtering,  flexible deployment methods, mobile device filtering capabilities, and advanced malware protection will keep your network secure and your employees’ productive no matter how the landscape of your organisation changes.

Also, in true Bloxx fashion, we’re asking you to get a bit wild and show us your best superhero impression.  Tweet us (@bloxx) with a picture of you wearing your underwear on top of your trousers at our stand at InfoSec, using the hashtag #ImABloxxSuperhero, and we’ll give you an Amazon gift card! The more outrageous the pants, the better.

So come along to stand H71 at InfoSec between the 23rd and 25th April (and don’t forget your best knickers!)

1. What is SSL?
SSL is the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a Web server and a browser. This ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private. When you connect to a Web site or Web page that uses SSL, HTTPS signals the browser to use an added encryption layer of SSL protect the traffic.

2. SSL encryption is becoming increasingly popular
An increasing number of web sites are using SSL encryption to protect users’ sensitive information, such as credit card details, bank details, or to store/send confidential business information to cloud applications. There is also an increase in Web sites that are adopting Always on SSL, which means that the whole web site will use SSL, not just specific pages.

3. Theoretically, SSL traffic is not always innocent
SSL encryption was designed to ‘hide’ private information from hackers or users looking to use it for malicious purposes, but it can also be used by these same people to ‘hide’ things from us good guys.

4. SSL Traffic can carry hidden malware…
If Web traffic that uses SSL encryption is infected with malware, then the infection will be hidden from the security controls on the user’s computer, and the payload will be deployed undetected. Hackers are increasingly exploiting vulnerabilities in the code of reputable websites, so you need to ensure you always have some sort of Web security solution enabled when browsing, no matter what sites you visit!

5. …as well as other threats
As well as hiding malware, SSL encryption can also be used to hide content that users may not normally be allowed access to in the workplace, such as gambling, pornography, or social media for example.

6. Not all Web filtering/security solutions inspect SSL traffic
As previously mentioned, SSL traffic freely passes through network gateways and security controls, and is therefore not normally decrypted by legacy Web filtering and security solutions. Although you could add SSL proxies and SSL-encrypted websites to an allow-or-deny list, this will be effectively useless due to the continuing growth of the Web. For example, new SSL proxy sites are created hourly, if not every minute, so it is impossible to keep an allow-or-deny list up to date.

7. How to protect your network against the risks of SSL traffic
The best way to protect your network against these risks is to deploy a Web filter that doesn’t solely depend on a static URL database to filter Web requests, and that also has the functionality to decrypt and inspect SSL traffic. Using a Web filter that incorporates real-time content analysis and malware scanning on encrypted traffic allows you to block inappropriate content or potential security threats at the gateway, ensuring network and user protection.

Our new white paper provides an essential guide to ensure that any monitoring you do is complaint.

Download it now to find out:

- What constitutes monitoring.

- Monitoring and the relevant legislation.

- The key steps you need to take to remain compliant.

At the start of this week, the IWF published their annual and charity report for 2012.

The report highlights the fantastic work that IWF have been doing over the last year to eliminate child sexual abuse images and videos from the Web.

Some of the key points of the report:

- 9,550 child sexual abuse URLs were removed worldwide.

- 56% of UK-hosted child sexual abuse web pages removed in 60 minutes or less.

- 39,211 reports were processed and 9,702 (25%) were confirmed as containing potentially criminal content.

- 7 children were rescued from their abusers throughout the year as a direct result of IWF action.

To read the full report, visit http://www.iwf.org.uk/accountability/annual-reports/2012-annual-report

Please feel free to share this post/the report to help raise awareness of how people can help the IWF meet their goals of removing child abuse content on the web, and protecting the victims from further harm.

Today we start the first in a series of blog posts entitled ‘7 things you need to know about….’

These posts will summarise some of the key issues in the Web filtering & security industry, and also explain what you can do to reduce risk to your users and network.

Kicking the series off is 7 things you need to know about the Web and content filtering.

1. The Web is a great resource but there are a few downsides
The Web is an extremely effective way for organisations to lower costs, increase productivity and improve customer intimacy. However, it also contains a huge amount of inappropriate content that if accessed can lead to increased risks for your organisation, reduced staff productivity and expose your users and network to security threats.

2.  The growth of the Web is truly remarkable
Over 150,000 new URLs are created and around 7 million URLs are updated with new content each and every day.  And the number of registered domains in 1995 was 15,000 and has now reached over 175 million.

3. You need to proactively manage access to the Web
If your organisation does not have an effective Web filtering solution in place to manage and monitor Web browsing, then its risk exposure is significantly increased. (see our handy Whitepaper on Legal Risks to find out more - http://bit.ly/14xfTxm)

4. Even good people do bad things (even if they didn’t mean to)
80% of all web-borne malware comes from reputable sites, so even if your employees aren’t browsing inappropriate content, just accessing an infected but business-related site can have a huge impact on your network.

5. Not all Web Filters are created equal
The capability of different approaches to Web filtering and the protection they provide can vary dramatically. The most basic approach is to use a allow and deny list on a Firewall or Router, a slightly more advanced approach is to use a URL database and keyword analysis. The most advanced solutions use real-time contextual analysis to categorise Web content at the point of request.

6. Legacy Web filtering is easy to bypass – just ask your children
The use of anonymous proxies is an increasingly popular method to circumvent Web filters and further renders legacy solutions useless.

7. Real-time contextual analysis – the elephant in the room
The most effective solution to deliver comprehensive Web content filtering is one that uses real-time contextual analysis and categorisation. This method means that new URLs that are not in the database can be categorised at the point-of-request, and then allow or deny access based on your Acceptable Use Policies. This is a key factor in helping to deliver a safe and productive online environment for your users.

Find out more about this topic by downloading our free Web filtering technologies white paper.

Visit our site and read the full article here - http://bloxx.com/about/news/128/why-one-size-fits-all-web-content-filtering-doesn-t-work

A recent update to American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM-V) stated that Internet Use Disorder (IUD) may soon be formally recognised as an actual mental health disorder. This follows China, Taiwan and South Korea formally recognising IUD a few years ago. In these countries latest research suggests that up to 30% of teens are suffering from IUD. Other countries have not yet formally recognised IUD, or Internet Addiction as it is alternatively known. Indeed the debate on the validity of IUD as an illness has raged on in the medical journal world for the last five years or more.So what are the signs symptoms of being addicted to the Web?

• · feeling preoccupied with the Internet,

• · feeling the need to use the Internet for an increasing amount of time,

• · unsuccessful efforts to control Internet use,

• · feeling restless, moody, depressed or irritable when attempting to cut down Internet use

• · staying online for longer than intended,

• · risking the loss of a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of Internet use,

• · lying to family members, a therapist or others to conceal the extent of involvement with the Internet,

• · using the Internet as a way of escaping from a problem.

A study in 2010 found 7% of Hong Kong teens should serious signs of Internet addiction and had five or more of the above symptoms. The same study demonstrated a link between serious internet addiction and depression and suicidal ideation, although it is though difficult to define the cause-effect relationship between these.

It’s worth noting that these are exactly the same signs and symptoms you would expect to see in someone addicted to alcohol, gambling or drugs.

A key question that’s been largely left unanswered so far is if IUD is treatable. At the moment no one is quite sure and there are a number of approaches being used.

One approach used is similar to the approach used for treating food addiction as for the vast majority of people the Internet is essential to their life/work. Many psychiatrists would say that recognising you have a problem is the first step. Some people have reported success with Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, in which you learn to approach tasks and worries with a different approach, attitude and thought process.

With IUD symptoms largely being exhibited teens, is this an impending storm for organisations that could have a huge impact for organisations’ IT and HR teams?

To add another dimension, findings from recent research commissioned by Cisco found that more than half of college students globally (56%) said that if they encountered a company that banned access to social media, they would either not accept a job offer or would join and find a way to circumvent corporate policy.

This is not to say that all of these students are potential IUD sufferers, but does show that open access to any Web content in the workplace is seen as a right by young people on the cusp of joining the world of employment.

Perhaps the potential combination of employees suffering from IUD with a belief that open access to the Web is a given means that organisations will need to review usage policies and the Web content filtering solutions they use to manage Web access for employees.

Do you think it is a real and treatable disorder? Does there need to more than just a Web filtering policy in place to help stop the problem? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Read our latest case study to hear more from Nick Blundell, Network Manager at Mullion School, about how a Bloxx 500W Web Filter has not only helped simplify the management of filtering the school’s 70 staff and 550 students, but has also ensured that the school is compliant with e-safety guidelines set by the government.

bloxx.com/customers/case-studies/99/mullion-school