No porn for IS customers

Johannesburg, 06 Jun 2005

Clients of Internet service provider (ISP) Internet Solutions (IS) are worried that either the ISP has been hacked or that it is choosing to censor its users.

This follows numerous complaints received by ITWeb from users who claim that for the past two weeks, they have been unable to access adult-related Web sites and chat rooms, although they are unsure of the reasons behind this.

Suggestions range from hackers having accessed IS`s server and blocked access to adult sites for surfers, to the company itself deciding which sites its users may visit.

According to one user, either option opens up a disturbing possibility: if IS has been hacked, why has it not done anything about it, and if it has chosen to block access to the sites, on what grounds does it do so?

Another one was quoted as saying: "They are ducking and diving and their abuse department will not respond to mail. Is this deliberate or have they been hacked? Either way it`s time for them to start coming up with the answers."

Michelle Branco, product marketing manager at IS, says the company does not block or deny content.

"I think that before throwing such wild accusations around, the complainants should establish whether their ISP or the administrator from their corporate LAN or WAN is blocking their access," she says.

"The network provider does not block any type of content, and we have not had any alerts in terms of hacking, so that theory is also false."

Branco says that as far as she is aware, no ISPs block content on behalf of users, although subscribers can choose to set up content filtering by category.

"It sounds as though it is an internal administrator that is blocking access, as many corporates set up filtering systems that block access to sites that have words like erotica or sex in the address," says Branco.

"What I can categorically state is that IS has absolutely nothing to do with blocking their access."