August 24, 2007

Government money -=- well spent

In other words, an Oxymoron -- this time it is in Australia. The Australian Government spent a total of $189M AU to develop the NetAlert program including $84 Million for a porn filter that parents can download onto their kids computers to 'keep them safe'. Meet 16 year old Tom Wood:
australia_porn_filter_tom_wood.jpg
Guess how long it took him to completely bypass the filter and make it look like the filter is still running? If you guess was 30 minutes, you would be correct. From news.com.au:
Student cracks $84m porn filter
A Melbourne schoolboy has cracked the Federal Government's new $84 million internet porn filter in minutes.

Tom Wood, 16, said it took him just over 30 minutes to bypass the Government's filter, released on Tuesday.

Tom, a year 10 student at a southeast Melbourne private school, showed the Herald Sun how to deactivate the filter in a handful of clicks.

Parents easily fooled

His technique ensures the software's toolbar icon is not deleted, leaving parents under the impression the filter is still working.

A former cyber bullying victim, Tom feared a computer-savvy child could work out the bypass and put it on the Internet for others to use.

Tom, who spoke to Communications Minister Helen Coonan about cyber safety during a forum in May, said the Federal Government should have developed a better Australian made filter.

"It's a horrible waste of money," he said.
And Tom is no slouch when it comes to hacking websites either:
In response to the Herald Sun's inquiries, the Government added an Australian designed filter, Integard, to the website yesterday, which Tom cracked within 40 minutes.
Methinks that when Mr. Wood decides to enter the workforce, he will have no problem finding a job... Posted by DaveH at August 24, 2007 9:38 PM