Creation of oversighting system proposed by ACS to address cybercrime

The Australian Computer Society (ACS) has released a report, by leading cyber-safety experts, which recommends the creation of an independent, oversighting system and an annual auditing process for black lists if compulsory ISP filtering is introduced. Developed by the ACS E-Security Taskforce, the report provides technical observations on the issues associated with ISP filtering and says education and oversight by parents is as crucial to addressing cyber-safety concerns for children as any filtering mechanism.

“Filtering alone is unlikely to adequately address cyber-security issues or significantly impact those who deliberately produce, distribute or search for illegal material,” said ACS Chairman and President Kumar Parakala.

“The taskforce recognises there is no silver bullet when it comes to cyber security and solutions to providing a safer and more secure internet. Addressing this challenge will require an ongoing, multifaceted approach, involving government, industry and social (end user) initiatives, using both technical and education-based tools. There is a need for greater transparency around black lists and a reporting system that measures the impacts of filtering and how it is working if compulsory filtering is introduced. Ultimately, ISPs should be encouraged to provide options that will suit all their end users, by introducing different and graduated levels of filtering and products over and above that which is compulsory,” said Parakala.

The ISP Filtering Report highlights the current challenges associated with filtering or blocking of internet content, which include: 

• Lack of a clear definition of the types of content that are subject to filtering.
• Limitations of automated techniques for analysing video, pictorial and audio content.
• Need for clear and consistent criteria behind labelling and rating of content.
• Where filters are placed within the network architecture, there is an impact on network performance (efficiency, speed, etc).
• Avoiding ‘over blocking’ and ‘under blocking’ and achieving consistency in blocking of material.
• The rate at which new internet-accessible content is being generated makes it difficult to maintain up-to-date black lists, white lists, keywords and phrases etc, used by analysis algorithms.
• Effectively managing user-generated material, which is created ‘on the fly.’ The labelling/rating of these sites and content is practically impossible.
• How to deal with encrypted traffic and secure channels, as encryption impedes filtering.

ACS E-Security Taskforce Chairman Professor Vijay Varadharajan explains, “If filtering is to be acceptable and credible, we need to have clear and transparent criteria to categorise content that applies equally across all media and content - both online and offline. Independent oversight should be introduced, including a system of checks and balances which incorporates an appeals system and an independent auditing process.

“We believe the government should establish the oversighting system and an annual auditing process for black lists to ensure the highest public confidence in its filtering process. Administered by an independent body, these processes would allow for improved transparency and credibility and could also offer an independent central point where appeals and other complaints about the black list could be directed. We believe the government should actively work with ICANN to help improve professionalism, as an integrated part of its cyber-safety strategy and to improve the effectiveness of the registrar accreditation and disciplinary processes. This will help ensure that sites containing illegal material are prevented from being allocated and from continuing to be permitted to use DNS and IP addresses,” said Varadharajan.