Attempts to block child porn raise protest

A pioneering strategy to stem online child pornography is threatening Internet stability, because it blocks Web surfers visiting innocent sites located in the same virtual neighbourhoods as those peddling illegal porn, a civil liberties group has said in Washington.

The Washington-based Centre for Democracy and Technology said it wants more details from Pennsylvania`s attorney-general about unusual efforts in that state forcing Internet service providers (ISPs) to block visits to Web sites. Its lawyers compare the technique to disrupting mail delivery to an entire apartment complex over one tenant`s illegal actions.

Pennsylvania`s attorney-general has so far instructed ISPs to block subscribers from at least 423 Web sites around the world. The law is unusual because it provides for a $5 000 fine to providers, not to the pornography sites themselves. [AP]

In a new study to be published on Thursday, a Harvard University researcher, Benjamin Edelman, has found that more than 85% of Web addresses ending in "com," "net" or "org" share computer resources behind the scenes with other Web sites.

Edelman, who says he analysed 30 million Web addresses over six weeks, says some Web sites share a single numerical Internet address with dozens of other sites. He says this level of sharing, which uses an increasingly common technique called "virtual hosting", interferes with blocking efforts by governments. In one extreme case, a single Web site, www.a000.net, shared its numerical address with 970 411 other sites. [AP]

A Houston ethical hacker accused of breaking into a Texan court`s wireless network has been acquitted of all charges. Stefan Puffer, 34, was charged on "two counts of unauthorised access into a protected computer system and unauthorised access of a computer system used in justice administration".

On 18 March 2002, Puffer demonstrated to a county official and a reporter how easy it was to gain access to the court`s system, using only a laptop computer and a wireless LAN card. The jury acquitted Puffer in a near record 15 minutes, at the end of the three-day trial.

Puffer, who was employed briefly by the county`s technology department in 1999, could have been sentenced to five years in jail and a $250 000 fine on each count if the result had gone the other way. Ed Chernoff, Puffer`s attorney, said: "The county had their wireless butt out and they were trying to use Stefan as a scapegoat." [The Register]