F.A.O. All ICT Managers / Technicians

[Mitch]

Dear All

 

I would be grateful for any advice, thoughts, ECT

 

For 3 years now I have developed a solution to combat internet misuse specifically within education establishments. (with you guys in mind)

 

I have piloted this at secondary schools and the results have been astonishing, in all of the schools I have been able to reduce internet misuse by 90-98%.

 

No software is INSTALLED on the client PC’s or Servers. Just my application is run (no installation required)

 

I have a written recommendation from a school, but this was some time ago and I have developed it further now.

 

What is the best way to move this forward?

I want input from an independent ICT Manager with regard to my Software /Solution.

 

Mitch

[Dos_Box]

Hi Mitch. It's nice to be asked like this. Most of the time people try and blatently sapm us. I think the best bet would be to allow one of our staff to look at your product and give us all an overview\review. If it is acceptable then you may want to be one of the first to take advantage of our soon to be launced advertising service (we are flexible on pricing). As the worlds premier school techies site it will give it more exposure than asking around, and if we can recommend it then you should see some sales.

 

(wow, reverse advertising!)

[Norphy]

This has piqued my curiosity but I would want to have a better idea of what this software actually does. How does it reduce abuse of facilities?

 

Cheers,

 

Norphy

[Mitch]

Thanks Dos_Box

 

That would be Fantastic, we are in the process of doing a website and here is some extract of it.

 

initially set up by three like minded parents. Concerned about the ever increasing occurance of stories in the media, and a couple of incidents reported, which in our opinion, occurred far too close to home, we decided to pool our resourses and skills and formulate what we believe to be a very effective solution.

 

Working with a number of Secondary schools, we devised and produced our unique application designed specifically with a curriculum network in mind. Our pilot schemes have proven this application to be highly effective in combatting the inappropriate misuse in schools.

 

Some education establishments have their own filtering software in addition to the automatic filtering provided by the Internet Service Provider, however there will always be a high degree of misuse that goes undetected.

 

Filtering applications are, in the majority, automated, and are only as effective as the administrator responsible for updating the information. Although automated filters are effective, they are only as good as the information they are programmed with and any determined user with the time and/or inclination will find a way to circumvent the barriers in place. These methods include using foreign languages, intentional mis-spelling, etc.

 

Because our system is a "Post-Occurrance" detection system we can guarantee to detect almost every incident of inappropriate use on your network. going back to the day the curriculum network was installed.

 

It is our belief that by eliminating all misuse on a network, not only is the general safety of the Users increased, but the integrity of the curriculum network, the resourses, the bandwidth and your considerable investment is maintained at their maximum efficiency.

 

We are able to locate a number of Internet Violations upon your Network, we are able to ascertain if these violations are inadvertently accessed or deliberately accessed.

 

Multi-Language support is Available.

 

 

Pornography (Images and Movies)

Adult Chat Rooms **

MP3 Downloads *

Movie (DVD) Downloads *

Software Downloads

Online Gaming

Web-Based EMail **

Mobile Phone Ringtone Downloads

Malicious Programming Code

Online Diaries **

SMS Messages **

Commercial Software Serial Numbers *

Hacking/Cracking Utilities *

Peer to Peer Software *

Executable File Downloads ****

Intstant Messanger Utilities (MSN, Yahoo,AOL,etc) **

Forum Message Boards

Online User Profiles **

Essay Plagiarism ***

Examination Answers ***

Web-Based Newsgroups

External Device Access *

Child Protection Issues (Bullying, Abuse, Drugs, Gambling, etc.)

[Mitch]

Norphy

 

I hope the above helps you, But please if you feel you can add anything to this please let us know. As my main objective is to protect minors ANY idea suggestions are more than welcome.

 

Dos_Box

 

I would be greatful if you could contact me

[Alex]

It's a logfile analyser?

[Mitch]

No Alex

 

it is unique,

 

Everyone who has seen it is speechless.

 

This is what i do at the schools.

 

1. Show the school a sample report

2. Produce a DPA contract to protect the school

3. Run the software on the curriculum network

4. Compile the reports

5. Return to the school with the reports and explain them to the Head / Head ICT.

6. Produce a School Internet Policy specifically for the school

7. Hold a assembly to the children explaining what ive done and my findings (and watch them cringe) and Internet Safety

 

Very basic outline but i gives you the idea

[Dos_Box]

So it's not a product you are selling, but a one off service?

[Mitch]

Do_Box

 

Its not a product, it is a service but not one off, I could return to the school annually, quartly ect.

 

The reports ive found speak for themselves, The Head of ICT at one school said to me "Ive waited years to get this now i can actually do something constructive about this."

 

Thats when i thought of expanding my service to an assembly held for the pupils.

 

I think the best thing to do is you find a school, ill do it Free of Charge.

Lets post the findings on here.

But what i do ask is a honest opinion either good or bad, improvements ect.

[Mitch]

Everyone

 

From the list of internet violations that i can discover is there anything else you would like me to be able to add to this.

 

I want to have everyones input, so i can improve this for you all.

 

mitch

[MkII]

Do we get a cut?

[Mitch]

Cut :!: Nowt happend yet LOL

If it ends up me going $$$$ 8O then

 

Mitch

[Quackers]

I am really confused to what this actually is. It makes no sense.

[Norphy]

It sounds to me that hes offering to analyze your proxy logs for you and give you a report on how your net connection is being misused. Please correct me if I've got the wrong end of the stick.

[russdev]

gist of it is mitch has a solution to stop porn (ok much more than that but you get gist)

 

which is he is trying to improve and is wondering what we need as solution and think what is basicly asking for is beta testers to test it out and say what can improve it

 

is that gist of it mitch

 

russ

[MkII]

Not stop porn - just a one off report.

 

Nothing blocked.

[Alex]

I'd want to know how it worked before it went anywhere close to my network.

[ajbritton]

Mitch has described the system as 'post occurrence', which means that it must be a log file analyser and report generator. If this is not the case then perhaps Mitch will tell us how it works? If he's not willing to give more details about how it works then it woud be difficult to assess it's suitability for use on any particular network,

 

I guess it's the overall service that makes the product unique.

[Mitch]

OK

 

A number of questions have arisen,

I will try and answer them briefly

 

1. AJBRITTON

 

It is not a log file analyser, it can also be used on individual computers as well as networked.

 

its not the overall service that makes this unique read below

 

2. ALEX

 

I quite agree with your statement.

My sofware scans for files created by the operating system itself.

 

3. MARK

 

Your statement is the most common one i have found, not only does my service stop users accessing porn , we create a report of ALL innapropriate websites that have been accessed on the school network.

Therefore able to go to the ISP of the school and request that these are added to a black list.

 

You imagine mark this

 

I give you a report that shows the following

 

USERNAME

DATE

TIME

WEBSITE

SEARCH

 

on the 27/03/06 at 12:07:42 SIMON went on google and searched for women F***ING

 

Then went on Google images and searched for the same

 

You now imagine having this data in your hand, you go to the pupil and ask them to explain this because this has happened EVERYTIME HE/SHE uses the network.

 

Its not the software that stops pupils from inappropriate behaviour on the network its the knowledge that, any misuse WILL BE detected, by an outside agency, the 98% reduction that we have proved during the pilot is a result of pupils not ATTEMPTING to view porn sites, the remaining 2% were pupils that had no regard to authority and accidental access.

[Mitch]

To Rusdev

 

Thanks for your comment, betatesters is not really required, I have proved that it works. what i need is us to do a Education Establishment, and the school network manager gives us a report of what we have done and achieved, for everyone to see.

And give us feedback if anything can be improved

 

I recieved this referance from a schools Head of ICT

 

"I have no hesitation stating that his work and the detail of his findings were remarkable.

He produced a detailed report of events going back to when the server was first introduced. His brief was to report on any interrogations by students that he thought was innapropriate. Again i can only emphasise that the detail was impressive.

In follow up he visited the school and took part in a number of meetings with the students and volunteered to do the same with parents. as a result of his work the amount of misuse by students has dropped dramatically, in addition the parents have been informed of our safety measures and we have recieved tremendous support.

without hesitation i reccomend his service to you."

 

Mitch

[Ric_]

I think what concerns members, is the methods used to find the data.

 

Most of the network configurations used scrub a lot of user settings at logoff or when the computer restarts. Users also have limited if any profiles.

 

If system files are inspected, how can you be sure that files are not being checked after pertinent details have been scrubbed?

 

Also, is this service limited to use of Internet Explorer, or will it work with other browers - Firefox, Opera...? Also, browsing within applications such as Office, StarOffice, OpenOffice, Explorer, etc. should also be considered.

 

Another question would be whether the service works for non-Windows based networks. Many members of EduGeek are implementing Linux and Mac clients on their networks.

 

Until all the above points can be addressed fully so that ALL Internet activity is guaranteed to be detected, can network managers contemplate spending money on such a service.

 

I am not knocking the service, as it could prove to be very time consuming to perform such a thorough search, however writing the proxy logs to a SQL server and running a couple of queries could produce similar results.

[Geoff]

Sounds like computer forensics to me. Certainly nothing new or unqiue (although perhaps the techniques haven't been applied in schools before). I even have a Linux LiveCD for doing forensics (although I've not needed it recently, it got regular usage in my previous job).

[DMcCoy]

I give you a report that shows the following

 

USERNAME

DATE

TIME

WEBSITE

SEARCH

 

on the 27/03/06 at 12:07:42 SIMON went on google and searched for women F***ING

 

Then went on Google images and searched for the same

 

I already have this data though, and can produce reports for students when required. It doesn't stop them trying, nor does it stop them using others accounts. They are teenagers, there is nothing practical more I can do except change to a whilelist system.

[Mitch]

I give you a report that shows the following

 

USERNAME

DATE

TIME

WEBSITE

SEARCH

 

on the 27/03/06 at 120742 SIMON went on google and searched for women F***ING

 

Then went on Google images and searched for the same

 

I already have this data though, and can produce reports for students when required. It doesn't stop them trying, nor does it stop them using others accounts. They are teenagers, there is nothing practical more I can do except change to a whilelist system.

So you can actually identify what the pupils have actually searched for within any search engine, website ect.

[Ric_]

@mitch: All you have to do is look at the website URL. For instance if you use google to search for 'searchterm', the URL is:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=searchterm&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

 

The bit that reads q=searchterm is what you look at. This is how products such as SmartFilter works (you just need to search for the keywords in the URL).