`Sex` is the most commonly searched for phrase on the Internet, according to Wordtracker* and 70% of all sex-related traffic occurs during business hours according to Sextracker.
Pornography has become a major issue for businesses globally as it leads to decreased employee productivity, degradation of network performance with photographic and video material playing havoc with bandwidth, and the risk of legal action.
Good news for companies is that the first anti-pornographic content checking software in the world was released recently.
Called PORNsweeper, it is a plug-in to world-leading content security software, MIMEsweeper, and is already winning accolades. PORNsweeper has won several awards, including the Best Content Security category at the SC Awards in London in April 2001. This award is given by Secure Computing magazine to products based on the results of votes by readers, information security product users, IT professionals and an independent judging panel.
The software actually analyses the content of images, as opposed to the file extensions or file names, scanning pictures sent through an organisation`s system to determine whether or not they are pornographic.
"Some organisations opt to block all photographs, but this can affect the running of the business," says Gary Middleton, security business development manager at Dimension Data, which represents the MIMEsweeper suite of products in Southern Africa. "PORNsweeper can tell with 95% accuracy whether pictures are pornographic or not, enabling only those pictures to be blocked."
PORNsweeper determines the probability of an image being acceptable or unacceptable according to the company`s security policy. The software works in a unique way by making a skin mask, or bit image, of the photograph in question.
"Very simplistically, it looks for the amount of `blobs of skin`, and determines the angle of the face," explains David York, sales manager of the Content Security Group, Baltimore Technologies, distributor of the MIMEsweeper product family.
"Like fingerprints, everyone`s face is unique," he says. "The software measures the distance between eyes, nose and mouth, thereby determining how much skin is on the individual`s face. It then uses mathematical equations to determine how much skin is on that person`s body, and can then determine how much of the body is uncovered. It correlates that with other measures, such as where the person is looking, to come up with a probability of the photograph being pornographic."
According to York, the 95% accuracy of detection is pushed up to close to 100% because of the deterrent effect.
"Once employees know that companies have our product, the deterrent value is enormous," he says.
PORNsweeper works rapidly - analysis is performed in between one and three seconds - so there is no dead time on the network. And because it is part of MIMEsweeper, it has recursive scanning ability.
"This is essential," says Middleton. "For example, pornographic material may be imbedded within a zipped word document as part of an e-mail attachment. The tool needs to be able to drill down to detect that. MIMEsweeper is capable of drilling down to 50 levels.
"Also vital is management information on rejected e-mails so that security can be stepped up further."
While this may sound a little like `Big Brother`, companies do have the right to scan employee e-mails and Web usage if those employees use the company network for private use.
"In addition, the distribution of pornographic material is illegal in most countries and cyber law in the US and Europe means that if employees send sexual - or other harassing - communications out, the CEO and directors of the company can be held liable," says York. "They can be imprisoned or heavily fined, and as a result, boards of directors have become very aware of e-mail problems."
In the UK recently, Norwich Union had to pay a fine of close to half a million pounds Sterling (450 000 pounds sterling) when it was sued after one of its employees e-mailed improper material.
"Companies need to consider the issues and threats that the human preoccupation with pornography may cause to their business," says Middleton.
Many businesses keep this kind of information confidential, but known cases include:
a. Mobile phone giant Orange sacked between 30 and 40 staff for downloading pornography from the Internet and sending it around their offices;
b. Dow Chemical fired up to 40 employees because of pornographic e-mail messages. Since July 2000 the company has reportedly terminated or disciplined nearly 300 employees for obscene e-mails;
c. White House staff and officials were caught downloading massive files containing hard-core pornographic videos from the Internet onto their government computers; and
d. The New York Times fired 23 employees for sending `offensive and inappropriate` e-mails.
The Baltimore MIMEsweeper family of solutions is the world`s leading family of Internet and e-mail content security solutions, and is represented locally by Dimension Data. More than 10 000 customers globally use the solutions to protect their networks and business from e-mail and Web-based threats. These threats include the circulation of inappropriate images and text, spam and oversize files that can cause degradation in network service, loss and corruption of data, breaches of confidentiality, as well as viruses and malicious code.
Notes:
a. *Wordtracker compiles databases of words and phrases which people search for on the Internet (www.wordtracker.com).
b. **Sextracker is a Web site that tracks people`s activity when they connect to porn sites.
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