Posted by Scott on April 14th, 2007 — Posted in Internet Safety
Cara Baruzzi recently wrote an article about cyber security. I include an excerpt:
Despite spending “too much” on Internet security measures, most business owners feel increasingly vulnerable to hacking and outside attacks, according to Ed Amoroso, AT&T Inc.’s chief information security officer.
Business owners need to change their approach to Internet and computer system security, Amoroso said. Traditionally, businesses, like consumers who use computers at home, have relied on software to combat everything from spam to hacking, but an overdependence on software actually is a big part of the problem, he added.
“Software is a fundamental issue,” Amoroso said, because most is flawed in some way, making businesses susceptible to outside intrusions. “I’ve never seen software that isn’t broken; there’s probably no such thing. We live in a world where most of the software that’s running around is probably unnecessary and probably broken.”
Therefore, he urged computer users to seek out more efficient software programs and use fewer of them, to cut down on the number of flaws in the system.
Read entire article by Cara Baruzzi.
Businesses need to put especial attention towards cyber security, because they have money and finances to secure. Unlike personal computers who mostly only have to worry about malicious attacks, businesses get targeted by cyber thieves often.
I think the expert correctly advises to not rely too heavily on software. Hackers and cyber attackers know how to beat the software. Perhaps, business owners need to learn to work their network well or hire someone to know it, because they need to know their network’s security better than a potential cyber attacker.
What do you think?
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Posted by Scott on February 13th, 2007 — Posted in Child Protection, Internet Safety
Dibya Sarkar wrote an article about an internet safety group broadening its mission:
The explosion of social networking sites such as MySpace.com and Second Life, along with free video sharing sites like YouTube.com, is making it increasingly difficult to protect children surfing the Internet, says Stephen Balkam, who founded a voluntary website rating system seven years ago.
To deal with this new Web terrain, Balkam relaunched his group Tuesday as the Family Online Safety Institute with a broader mission of improving online child safety and protecting free speech through public policy, education and events.
The institute, originally called the Internet Content Rating Association, or ICRA, was originally formed to promote voluntary self-labeling through a rating system.
We don’t believe labeling is some kind of silver bullet,” Balkam said. “Labeling is one tool in a range of tools that’s going to be needed to tackle this problem.”
Nancy E. Willard, who directs the Portland, Ore.-based Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, said that blocking technology is largely useless because kids and teens can find a way around them.
“What we are doing is evaluating what exists right now,” Balkam said. “We’d love to see some government-funded research on what works and what doesn’t work.”
Balkam, who is the institute’s chief executive officer, said his group will host a series of round-table discussions involving educators, lawmakers and corporate executives in the United States, Mexico and Europe.
Read entire article by Dibya Sarkar.
Access to the internet provides a new danger for children. Firstly, it gives children access to inappropriate content. Even worse, it also gives predators another route to prey on and manipulate children and teens. These predators come not only in the sexual form, but also con men, thieves, and hackers.
The ignorance and inexperience of parents and guardians about the threat and about how to protect their children from it, makes the internet exceptionally dangerous. Most parents know to tell their kids not to take candy or rides from strangers at the playground, because playgrounds were around throughout the parents’ whole lives. In contrast, many parents do not know what advice to tell their kids about internet safety, nor do parents know what rules to set and how to enforce them.
Educating parents, guardians, and child supervisors (such as teachers) can increase internet safety.
I do not like the idea of state-funded research. I do not want the state to force anyone to pay to protect someone else’s children.
What do you think?
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