What does iShield
do?
Image Blocking - iShield can block any porn image displayed
in Internet Explorer with a customized replacement image.
URL Logging - iShield records the URLs of any web-pages
browsed that it has determined to be pornographic. The iShield
administrator can view a log of such these pages.
Popup Warning - iShield can trigger a warning message when
it detects a web page which contains pornographic material,
so as to let the end-user know that the incident has been
captured.
How is iShield different
from URL Filtering Software?
URL filters only restrict access to known pornographic web
sites and so are dependent on the list of known web-sites
being up to date. This dependency is important since there
are in the region of 100,000 new pornographic web-pages being
placed on the Internet each day. iShield does not use any
lists of known pornographic websites, instead it analyses
each web-page as it is loaded finds pornographic images and
then blocks them.
How does iShield detect
explicit images?
iShield's locates areas of interest in each image using colour-analysis.
Next a series of techniques are applied, namely contrast normalization,
skin-colour analysis, texture-analysis, edge-detection, blob-detection,
shape analysis, brightness-flow analysis and face detection. The
results of these image processing techniques are fed into a neural
network to make a decision on the image. Next the text is recovered
from the web-page and analysed. The results of the text-analysis
and image-analysis are combined to make an overall decision.
What does iShield do when
it detects explicit images?
When iShield detects suspect material being displayed on a browser
it automatically records the event in a log file that can be reviewed
by the administrator. Next, if the image blocking mode is switched
on, then iShield replaces pornographic images with a non-pornographic
one.
Can I customize iShield's
protection level?
iShield has a control panel accessible via a password. This control
panel allows the administrator to i) turn iShield's detection engine
on and off; ii) select the degree of pornography about which an
image will be blocked; iii) select which of the three modes of operation,
namely: Active Block, Active Warn and Passive Mode is active; iv)
view the report log containing the URLs of pornographic web-pages
visited by the end-user; and v) change the administrator password.
Note that in the first mode of operation, the Active Block mode,
images are replaced with a non-pornographic image. In the second
mode, Active Warn mode, a message box pops-up when pornography is
detected to warn the user that they are being monitored. In the
third mode, the Passive Mode, the incidences of pornography are
recorded but no action is taken to warn the end-user or block any
images.
Will iShield block images
that are not pornographic?
Whilst iShield's detection engine is designed to reduce the risk
of false triggers, occasionally iShield will block non-explicit
images in part due to the inherent subjectivity of what constitutes
pornography. To alleviate this problem the pornographic level above
which images are block can be manually adjusted from iShield's control
panel.
We've already got a firewall
…
Firewalls are perfect for stopping external access to your systems
but don't and can't control, monitor and report what is being viewed
using the web-browser.
Do I have to take out my
existing blocking software?
No, we don't encourage this. Your existing software provides a basic
level of protection. Our software adds a much higher degree of monitoring
and control - within the web-browser itself.
