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InternetSafety.com partners with Australian Government to keep families safe online

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internetsafety.jpgThe Australian Government is partnering with US-based InternetSafety.com to provide parents down under with free access to the leading Internet filtering software, Safe Eyes. The move is part of the Australian Government’s extensive Internet safety initiative known as NetAlert – Protecting Australian Families Online.

Under the government plan, Australian families can choose between a limited number of vetted Internet content filters, including industry-leader Safe Eyes, which recently received PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award for the second consecutive year. The Government undertook an extensive evaluation and testing process to select the Internet content filters involved in the initiative. In addition, the Australian Government is conducting a widespread awareness and education campaign, providing a toll-free Internet-safety hotline and expanding the law enforcement team responsible for the prosecution of online predators.

Australia’s $189 million program is the first of its kind initiative launched by a nation’s government. “The global nature of the Internet and the way it transcends national borders makes it a unique challenge for governments around the world,” said Senator Coonan. “Despite these challenges, the Howard Government has been tackling the issue of offensive online content for more than seven years.”

Originally posted on September 13, 2007 @ 10:16 am

Google announces official acquisition of Postini

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In its continuous initiative to stretch their applications and business product offerings, internet giant Google announces its official acquisition of Postini, a company that delivers on-demand web security solutions, amounting to $625 million.

Google states that they acquired Postini “in order to create a more complete Google Apps solution that addresses the information security and compliances issues facing businesses of all sizes.” With Postini’s spam and virus protection products, Google aims to continue their initiative against unwanted and malicious messages, and in turn, enhance their applications, as well as security and corporate compliance.

Now a fully-owned subsidiary of Google. Postini products as well as employess will be integrated to the Google family within the next couple of months. With Postini having over 35,000 customers worldwide, and Google with over 100,000 businesses on Google aps, Postini being a part of Google family is definitely an asset on both ends.

Via GB.

Originally posted on September 13, 2007 @ 10:09 pm

Infected web pages increase six-fold, Sophos says

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Infected web pages is continuously increasing, soaring almost six times this year, as reported by security company Sophos PLC.

According to a recent study released by Sophos, they detected an average of 30,000 newly infected pages every day when earlier this year, the tally was only about 5,000 pages per day. This only shows how unsafe the web has become. Apparentely, majority of these infected web pages are hosted on legitimate Web sites.

“It begs the question as to why Web hosts are not taking the necessary steps to properly secure their servers,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, in a statement. “Simple measures such as keeping up to date with security patches will go a long way towards thwarting this problem; the fewer holes in server setups, the lower the risk of infection.

View Sopho’s threat report here.

Originally posted on July 26, 2007 @ 3:49 am

NoodleNet provides kids shielded Internet experience

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NoodleNetA Texas company announced today it has launched a “safe desktop and online environment” targeted towards kids age 3-11. This environment is called NoodleNet and it’s designed to be installed onto a PC.

NoodleNet acts as “a secure gated community with simple controls for parents and age-appropriate content pre-loaded for instant access to hundreds of screened games, books, videos, puzzles and online activities.” It uses a team of experts to review and approve Web sites which is considered age appropriate. The program is designed to lockdown the Internet experience, limiting control and exiting of the program to authorized people such as parents and caregivers.

“The relevancy today of both parental involvement and the need for a safe online environment has never been more evident,” said Michael Callahan, president of NoodleNet. “All of us here at NoodleNet are focused on leveraging our expertise and technology to create a truly unique consumer offering modeled around the family — one that will make meaningful impact in the lives of children. We are delivering an experience that truly enables the whole family or the individual child to explore the Internet without the parent or guardian ever having to worry or fear what their child may encounter. This is our assurance that children will not intentionally or unintentionally view inappropriate material online or access your desktop files.”

Originally posted on July 9, 2007 @ 5:31 pm

Google ranks lowest for privacy protection practices

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Privacy InternationalIt’s all over the news, the blogosphere, the web. Google, the search engine giant as we know it, was ranked the lowest as to protecting the privacy of its users is concerned. This finding by Privacy International is based on six month research, placing Google at the bottom of 23 internet companies, including Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL. Google is the only company among those included in the study to receive a failing grade for “conducting comprehensive consumer surveillance and having entrenched hostility to privacy.”

“We are aware that the decision to place Google at the bottom of the ranking is likely to be controversial, but throughout our research, we have found numerous deficiencies and hostilities in Google’s approach to privacy that go well beyond those of other organizations,” Privacy International said.

Google, on the other hand, has publicly refuted the report as inaccurate. “We are disappointed with Privacy International’s report, whichi is based on numerous inaccuracies and misunderstandings about our services”, Google’s deputy general counsel, Nicole Wong, said.

Privacy International is a London-based privacy NGO that provides technology asessement, develops reviews of policy, and acts as a watchdog on surveillance by governments and corporations. The full report, A Race to the Bottom – Privacy Ranking of Internet Service Companies, can be found here.

Originally posted on June 11, 2007 @ 7:26 am