United Nations agencies, together with partners of the Child Online Protection Initiative, today released new guidelines to “provide the most accessible online tools for teens as well as to enable them to seek help and advice when they need it.”

“These guidelines, prepared in partnership with the Child Online Protection initiative, respond to substantial advances in technology to assess and respond to children’s needs in the online world,” said Hamadoun I. Touré, the Secretary-General of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

“The revolution in online communications have created tremendous opportunities for young people today, but at the same time they have been exposed to new risks in cyberspace,” Mr. Touré said.

The Guidelines for Industry on Child Online Protection provide advice on how the information and communications technology (ICT) industry can help promote safety for children using the Internet or any technologies or devices that can connect to it, as well as guidance on how to enable responsible digital citizenship, learning and civic participation.

The updated version provides guidance specifically aimed at companies that develop, provide or make use of ICTs.

One of the partners of the initiative, Simon Milner, Policy Director, Facebook, said in a press release issued jointly by ITU and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF): “Children’s online safety is a responsibility we all share: from those who care for and teach children, to the companies who provide online services, to policy-makers.

“Our goal at Facebook is to provide the most accessible online tools for teens as well as to enable them to seek help and advice when they need it,” Mr. Milner said. “The Guidelines provide a framework for company action on children’s online safety, so we appreciated the opportunity to contribute our expertise to their development. They are practical, evidence-based and should be impactful.”

The Guidelines call for a comprehensive response to the online risks facing children and partnerships across multiple stakeholder groups, including governments, companies, civil society, parents and educators.

“Innovation by the private sector has helped drive the digital revolution. The same spirit of innovation is key to expanding the reach of that revolution to the most disadvantaged children – and to keeping all children safer, more connected, and more engaged as digital citizens of the future,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.

Source: UN News Center

The Moscow City Telephone Network (MGTS) has launched the “White Internet” service, which will expand the functions of previously implemented “Parental Control” services through the installation of a new traffic filtering system.

By using the service, it will be possible not only to block a particular site completely, but to deny access to its pages containing dangerous or undesirable content. There is also an ability to filter resources by their type of protocol that allows to block children’s access not only to torrents, but to online games as well.

The system provides subscribers with the ability to configure access to the Internet for children according to their age (children up to 7 years, 7-12 years, 12-18 years old, older than 18 years), according to the time spent online, to create a personal filtration profile and to form their own black and white lists. Beside, it is possible to connect the functionality of the secure search in the search engines to restrict access to the results in unsafe queries, as well as to receive reports on statistics of references to banned sites and search queries in “My Account” of any subscriber.

The filtration of sites will be provided due to the base of categorized Internet resources which contains about 100 million records in Russian and other languages. The catalog development occurs on the basis of automatic methods of dangerous sites analysis, open sources of international organizations.

Besides that, the sites are included in the list of undesirable query-based “This site is dangerous for my baby” from users of MGTS. This feature allows parents to inform the company about sites with inappropriate content for children. For this purpose it is necessary to send the link to the screening site from “My Account”.  After the screening there will be made a decision if the site should be in the the list of dangerous resources.

The control system of internet traffic is on the MGTS network, thus  the safety control of children on the Internet will be implemented regardless of the type of a device connected to the network.

Source: lenta.ru

The last weekend of this summer was marked by an internet-wide newsbreak: anonymous hackers somehow obtained explicit photos of various Hollywood celebrities and publicized this material on the Internet. Such leaks are not new, however, this one was on a massive scale. From the very beginning there was an assumption that perhaps some photos were stolen directly from celebrities’ accounts in the Apple’s iCloud.

Although cloud-based file storage services have long been popular among Internet users, the indisputable convenience of such services is at least partly offset by some significant risks. For example, many users store scans of their passports and other sensitive documents (or sensitive photos) in the cloud – though sometimes vulnerabilities in the service jeopardize the security of that personal data. When it comes to cloud security, the security of the endpoint is often overlooked. The device itself could also become the source of a leak if it is compromised by malware with spying capabilities that can send files and credentials from the cloud directly into the hands of cybercriminals.

To avoid possible issues with private data leaks via computers, mobile devices or cloud services, Christian Funk, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab, recommends the following measures:

1. Use strong passwords, unique to each account.
2. Use endpoint security solutions to protect your devices, because every device is a gateway to your cloud storage.
3. Enable and use two-factor authentication services whenever available.
4. Sort out which information should or should not be stored in the cloud. Your most sensitive information – whether relating to your personal or professional life – should never be trusted to the cloud.
5. It’s easy for a mobile device to be lost or stolen, so make sure the device itself has no sensitive data stored on it. If this is impossible, make sure there is appropriate encryption in place.
6. If you’re about to store highly sensitive information (including photos and videos), double check that your device doesn’t automatically upload data into the cloud.
7. Before sharing your personal data or allowing someone to take a picture of you, make sure that the other device is sufficiently secure to keep your private data safe from inadvertent exposure.

Source: KasperskyLab

According to Facebook’s 2012 experiment, moods can be alerted by what other people post on social media. Apparently, though, that’s not the only thing social networks can do: according to a study by two European researchers, social media could also affect how satisfied people are with their lives. Fabio Sabatini from the Sapienza University in Rome and Francesco Sarracino from STATEC, the government statistics agency of Luxembourg, paired up to crunch data from a huge survey (seriously, there were 50,000 responders) conducted in Italy. That survey asked participants how satisfied they are with their current lives, how often they meet with friends, whether they trust people and what they typically do on the internet.

Based on the answers they got, the duo concluded that people tend to feel more satisfied with their lives and to be more trusting of people if they often meet with friends in person. Obviously, that’s not something you can do through the internet, so those who spend a ton of time on social networks are more inclined to be leery of other people. Sabatini and Sarracino also blame all the discrimination and hate speech online, in particular, for planting the seeds of distrust in social media users. In all, the study finds the overall effect of social networking on individuals to be “significantly negative” despite its power to keep people connected.

Source: Engadget

As it is stated on Der Spiegel website, a British blogger Eliot Higgins localized an IS training camp.

Higgins found some photos of IS terrorists on their Twitter account, where 45 people wearing the similar clothes stand in front of a river. After doing just a little bit of research with Google Earth he found that it is Tigris River in Mosul, which is in the North of Iraq. Flash Earth service was used to localize some visible on the photos constructions.

Panoramio, which tags the location photographs where taken onto a map, helped to localize the training camp of terrorists.

Source: Bellingcat

According to VentureBeat, Apple has stopped downloads in Brazil of anonymous sharing app Secret from the App Store since a Brazilian court told Apple and Google to expunge Secret from their stores as well as from devices they had already been downloaded to. The reason for the court decision was the publication of a photo of a naked man with a signature that he is HIV-positive.

Brazilian law does support free speech rights, but it does not allow for anonymous free speech, making the app unconstitutional. In the case of bullying, if one person says something slanderous against another person, Brazilian law says the offended person should have an opportunity to defend themselves.

The judge demanded to remove the program from the Apple App Store and Google Play, threatened the company with a fine of 20 thousand reais (about 9000 dollars) for each day after the deadline, when the Secret should be removed from the directory. Finally, the judge wants the Secret to be removed from the smartphones and tablets of users who have already set the application.

So, far there’s no word from either Microsoft or Google on whether they will comply with the injunction. Both companies still have a week before daily fines start mounting.

Source: VentureBeat

British Prime Minister David Cameron has announced a new program that will rate music videos like movies — though it’s not clear how effectively it will block inappropriate content.

“We’re going to help parents protect their children from some of the graphic content in online music videos,” Cameron said in a speech to the Royal College of GPs in London on Monday. The three-month pilot program will begin in October.

Cameron said Vevo and YouTube have agreed to the initiative, as has the BPI. According to their website, BPI represents the British arms of Universal Music, Sony Music, and Warner Music as well as 300 other labels, which account for 85% of all music released in the UK.

The ratings will only apply to British-made music. That means they probably won’t limit controversial American music videos like Miley Cyrus’ ”Wrecking Ball” or Robin Thicke’s ”Blurred Lines”.

Cameron’s most recent attempt to clean up the web for children was roundly criticized. In December 2013, internet service providers implemented opt-out porn filters under government pressure. The filters failed to block all hardcore pornography, but did block access to informational websites about drugs and sex, as well as domestic abuse charity sites.

Source: Mashable

According to a new report from The Information, though, Google is gearing up to unleash its services on an even younger audience. Currently, the company’s age limit on those who can officially obtain a Google in the U.S. is 13 years old. Google is preparing features like a child-friendly version of YouTube that will allow kids to obtain their own accounts and an online dashboard that allows parents to keep tabs on their kids goings-on while they are online. Google hopes these features will attract more children onto its sprawling web platform, which also includes products like Gmail and Chrome.

Extending its reach in a such a way means Google has to fight to comply with Coppa, a federal law that calls for (among other things) the strict and thoughtful handling of data collected from children. This whole rigmarole is made trickier by the fact that there are really two kinds of Google accounts: ones created from a traditional computer that require a user to provide their age (whether they’re honest about it is another story entirely) and ones created from Android devices that don’t have ages tied to them. The Information reports that you won’t be able to create one of those age-less mobile Google accounts before long, though it’s unclear how Google’s going to address about the ones that already exist.

Source: engadget 

According to the Agency for Communication and Information, 2 VKontakte groups - ”Give Northern Kazakhstan back to Russia” and “Northern Kazakhstan is a part of Russia” – were deleted on the basis of official complaint department.

“The information placed by the users of the groups contained violations of both Kazakh and Russian legislation on the prevention of encroachment on state sovereignty, territorial integrity, propaganda of ethnic hatred and discord,” highlighted the ACI.

Earlier the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan reported that it is impossible to control social media. “Social media is a specific sphere which cannot be verifiable. If such kind of group exists, it is impossible to control the thoughts of people. We are actually talking about a marginalized group of people who express opinions of the absolute minority of a marginal strata of Russian society,” commented the appearance of these groups the Deputy Foreign Minister Yerzhan Ashikbaev at a briefing of SCC.

Scandalously famous Russian MP Vladimir Zhirinovsky, speaking live on a televised rally on February 23 via Russia 24, called to deprive the Central Asian countries of their independence. Another politician, an opposition leader Eduard Limonov on his Facebook page called the government to annex some of Ukraine’s and Kazakhstan’s territories in light of the unrest in Ukraine and the exchange rate fluctuations in Kazakhstan.

According to Lavrov, he was ashamed that such statements were made by Russian politicians. “I consider them inappropriate,” he said. He also pointed out that in line with the Russian legislation, the official position of the state can be declared only by the President, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He said that the persons who are legitimately authorized to voice Russia’s foreign policies would never say anything resembling Zhirinovsky’s or Limonov’s statements.

Source: Tengrinews.kz

Timur Bekmambetov’s film Cybernatural has been awarded Most Innovative Film and Special Mention of the Jury at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal.

The low-budget film was directed by Leo Gabriadze in a found footage genre, extensively used in the past several years.

“To create Cybernatural, our collegues conducted a real research work that took over one and a half year. For the film we created decorations of 6 bedrooms for each character (…). The actors communicated with each other through computer networks while sitting at different floors,” Bekmambetov said.

Cybernatural starts with a popular high school girl listening to music while Skyping with her boyfriend. They receive a call from a girl who committed suicide exactly one year ago because of cyber bullying. The teens first think it a prank, but as the film unfolds, realize that it is an eerie reality.

“To create Cybernatural, our collegues conducted a real research work that took over one and a half year. For the film we created decorations of 6 bedrooms for each character (…). The actors communicated with each other through computer networks while sitting at different floors,” Bekmambetov said.

The producer said that post-production was the most difficult part of the film. “Synchronizing all the elements to create a real living computer screen was incredibly difficult. To piece everything together we had to cut and change all these dozens of video tracks,” Bekmambetov explained, adding that he might resort to this method in his future films again.

Source: tengrinews.kz