Observe to protect

Pro

1 April 2005

An Irish security company that has already deployed its Pixalert Enforcer software to assist the Gardai in detecting illegal and pornographic material on PCs, is now tailoring its technology to help small companies survey for illegal downloading and storage in the workplace.

Bio Observation Systems offers an image analysis product that searches office networks and individual computers for flesh tones that indicate pornographic and inappropriate images of children. The software – Pixalert Monitor – uses a rating system that can detect the severity of the pornographic material. For example, where a JPEG image of Pamela Anderson is discovered, it would get a 70 per cent rating, inappropriate images of children would register something much closer to 100 per cent.

In small business, it can be used by a business manager to monitor for illegal activity. If such activity is already suspected, it can be used to confirm and help build a case for dismissal. The software serves to protect the business against criminal prosecution where the downloading and distribution of images of minors, including cartoon images, is illegal. David McLoughlin, chief executive, Bio Observation Systems, believes that many small business managers are unaware that each time they do a back up of company data, they run the risk of copying illegal images that are stored on employee’s hard disks unbeknownst to them and that that in itself is an offence. While criminal prosecution is unlikely for the company, the adverse publicity surrounding a suspected offence could be damaging enough.