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| Sophos will work closely with the IWF to combat
internet child abuse, and criminally obscene and racist
content. |
Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against viruses,
Trojans, spyware and spam, has today announced its membership of
the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the authorized UK organisation
that combats illegal internet content.
As the number of computer users continues to rise, so does the
variance and quantity of online content available to them. The
experts at Sophos work closely with the IWF to combat the
increasing threats present on the net, in particular images of
child abuse and criminally obscene and racist content.
SophosLabs™,
Sophos's global network of threat analysis centers, detects a vast
quantity of spam containing illicit material, and shares details of
this with IWF. In addition, IWF will now provide Sophos with lists
of known illegal websites, many of which send out obscene spam,
enabling the company to report back to IWF, while better protecting
customers.
"We see it as our social duty to do all we can to prevent
unsuspecting users from opening the disturbing material that
spammers are wilfully churning out," said Mark Harris, global
director of SophosLabs "We already advise the IWF of data on
criminal spam and websites we encounter, so joining the
organisation seemed the next logical step in our committed fight
against the presence of offensive online content."
"We are delighted that Sophos has chosen to join the IWF," said
Peter Robbins, CEO, IWF "If we are to eradicate illegal content
online, we need to attack these criminals from all angles, and
preventing spam from filtering through to users' computers plays a
vital role in this clampdown."
About the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)
The IWF is the only authorized organisation in the UK which
provides an internet 'hotline' for the public to report their
exposure to illegal content online.
The IWF aims to minimize the availability of potentially illegal
internet content, specifically;
- child abuse images hosted anywhere in the world
- criminally obscene content hosted in the UK
- criminally racist content hosted in the UK
The IWF works in partnership with UK Government Departments such
as the Home Office and the Department of Trade and Industry to
influence initiatives and programmes developed to combat online
abuse. This dialogue goes beyond the UK and Europe, to ensure
greater awareness of global issues and responsibilities.
The IWF are funded by the EU and the UK internet industry
including Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Mobile Operators &
manufacturers, Content Service Providers (CSPs) and
telecommunications & software companies.
Through the hotline reporting system, the IWF helps ISPs to
combat abuse of their services by operating a 'notice and take
down' service which alerts them to any illegal content found on
their system and the IWF assesses material reported and passes on
any relevant details to Law Enforcement Agencies
As a result, the amount of illegal content hosted in the UK has
been reduced from 18% in 1997 to less than 1% in 2004.
As the number of people using the internet and the diversity of
content available continues to grow, the mechanisms of dealing with
illegal content must be better known and understood
In partnership with many organizations, the foundation strives
to create continued awareness of the role and purpose of the IWF
and aims to foster trust and reassurance in the internet for
current and future users
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 237 700
media@iwf.org.uk
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.