news
#01 2014 Make a difference
Jens Storberget, Swedish Government Offices, Björn Sellström, National Bureau of Investigation and Michael Färdigh, Växjö Municipality.
Photo: Ola Jacobsen
Enabling government and local authorities to put a stop to CSAI crimes The use of NetClean ProActive by national and local authorities allows the prosecution of people for offences involving child sexual abuse images (CSAI), while at the same time preventing future sexual abuse of children. Furthermore, this is possible without anyone other than the police needing to look at the material. This emerged at NetClean’s network meeting for government customers in Stockholm last September.
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esides prosecuting people for offences involving CSAI, the police can also prevent continued and future abuse by obtaining quick access to images and films flagged by NetClean ProActive. By prosecuting consumers of CSAI material, the risk of more people committing abuse themselves is also reduced. “People who consume CSAI are at higher risk of abusing children themselves. The responsibility for doing something about this doesn’t lie solely with the police. We need everyone to help,” says Björn Sellström of the Swedish National Bureau of Investigation.
He is in charge of the national working group for the prevention of sexual abuse of children and crimes involving CSAI. Björn Sellström was one of three speakers at NetClean’s network meeting for customers from local and national authorities. At the meeting, several of the attendees learned for the first time that they do not need to verify and assess suspected image
files themselves when the NetClean system issues an alert. “You simply need to send the digital fingerprint of the image to me, so that I can verify it against our image bank while you wait on the other end of the phone,” explains Björn Sellström. For Jens Storberget, Head of IT Information Security for the Swedish Government Offices, the decision to install NetClean ProActive on the authority’s computers was an easy one. “We have a broad cross-section of society working within our organisation and so we need to take a proactive approach towards identifying the one person in a thousand who is looking at child sexual abuse images on their work computer,” says Jens Storberget. He explains that getting IT security managers and responsible lawyers on board was a surprisingly rapid process. It was simply a question of establishing a clear procedure for managing alerts. Växjö Municipality, which has more than 5500 users, first installed NetClean ProActive in 2007 and has experience of a number of alert management processes. All the cases involving staff have resulted in the person in question handing in their notice or being dismissed. The municipality has also reported all the cases to the public prosecutor. “You can never tell from a person’s appearance whether they are someone who is interested in looking at images or videos of child abuse,” says Michael Färdigh, Head of Human Resources at Växjö Municipality.
Contents
➤ ARM is NetClean’s new partner in South Africa.
➤ Seven trends in CSAI on the web.
➤ NetClean at the ICAC conference.
Ramona Byrö is brave enough to talk about her experiences of abuse
➤➤➤
Christian Berg, CEO:
Part of an ecosystem
A
clear trend that we are
currently seeing among our larger customers, some of which are national governments, is a move towards complete solutions. We no longer offer only products, but also total solutions. This means that NetClean is often part of a customer’s overall ecosystem, which also includes third-party products. In Sweden, internet service providers, the police and businesses are already using our products. We are now trying to achieve the same thing in other countries. Over the years, we have often been
asked how our technology can be used in other areas. However, until now we have focused exclusively on preventing the distribution of CSAI. At the same time, we are aware that the purpose of what we do is to create a safer society and we are now ready to work in other areas, as long as that their overall aim is to make the world a safer place.
We already have the tools to detect,
analyse and block illegal digital material and we specialise in doing this in the case of CSAI. We are all aware that the use of online media is snowballing. This creates difficulties while at the same time giving us opportunities to tackle society’s problems. We now want to look more closely at how we can use our knowledge and experience in other fields. There are significant similarities between the spread of CSAI on the Internet and other types of illegal activities.
We hope to be able to identify new ways of dealing with other problems in the future, so that we can continue helping to make society safer.
Ramona found the courage to talk about the abuse Ramona Byrö was sexually abused by her stepfather for six years. She now speaks openly about her experiences. “The best way to protect children is to take a preventive approach”, she says.
T
he abuse began when
Ramona was six years old.
No one noticed anything. On the surface, she appeared to be a happy, positive, very intelligent little girl. “I was afraid that someone would find out. My stepfather threatened that the police would come and all sorts of terrible things would happen, so I pretended to be happy. It was absolutely impossible for anyone to know what I was going through,” she says. “I was living a very sad life.”
by her daughter. “The police told me that a lot of children don’t have supportive parents. Many of them come to the hearings on the bus or the train on their own. That is simply awful. My mother handled the whole thing very well.” Ramona explains that she managed
to find happiness despite her appalling experiences by taking strength from small things, for example, caring for her rabbit or going to football training, which was also a physical outlet for her anger. “I had ways of relieving my stress and I think that was extremely important. I still felt good whenever I was with my rabbit and I gained strength from that,” she says. “This is something I have taken over into my adult life. I have been able to spend more time on the things that make me feel good than on those that don’t.”
But ultimately she That’s not to say FACTS that the journey has found herself unable Ramona Byrö been easy. She has had to cope any longer. • Age: 30 many setbacks and When Ramona was • Lives in: Gothenburg periods when she felt 12, her boyfriend left • Family: Partner, mother very low. But Ramona her for someone else. and siblings. made a choice: This was when the • Occupation: “I could have simply dam was breached Businesswoman with given up and become and everything came three businesses of mentally ill. But I pouring out. her own. chose to focus on the “Once the facade positive in life instead,” had crumbled, it was she explains. impossible for me to stop. I spoke “I have worked hard to pull myself to my boyfriend, my friends and back from the brink and I have been my teacher.” After that, everything lucky to receive a lot of support. happened very quickly. I have gradually become aware of the Her stepfather confessed and things that make me feel good and was arrested and forced to leave the bad. I know what I need to avoid family home. Eventually he was sent and what saps my energy. to prison. Today I feel good.” Ramona’s mother has always stood
Ramona Byrö’s advice for adults
Christian Berg, CEO NetClean
• Take notice if a child seems to be off colour. He or she may suddenly be doing less well at school, appear depressed or be acting out of character. But remember that many children hide their feelings, so the problem may not be noticeable on
the outside. Be aware of the fact that problems can exist even where there are no visible signs. • Take a preventive approach by explaining to children that they have the right to control what happens
to their own bodies. The Save the Children Sweden has published a book entitled “Stopp! Min kropp!” (Stop! It’s my body!). This provides advice on how to talk to children of all ages from toddlers to teenagers about their rights over their own bodies.
➤ NetClean at the
ICAC conference
At the beginning of February, NetClean gave a presentation at the regional ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) conference in Los Angeles. In conjunction with the conference, NetClean joined forces with the DHS-HSI (Department of Homeland Security – Homeland Security Investigations) to provide training for national and state forensic investigators and ICAC specialists.
➤ A new contact
for customers
Caroline Torsthensson, who has previously worked in NetClean’s marketing department, took over the role of Customer Care Business Manager at the beginning of the year. Her tasks include acting as the contact person for all NetClean’s SME customers. Among other things, this involves helping customers with contract renewals, Caroline Torsthensson licensing issues and support regarding managing alerts. “It will be exciting to work more closely with our customers and be more involved in their challenges,” she says. Caroline Torsthensson took over from Åsa Orréus, who is on maternity leave.
➤ NetClean moves
into the South African market
The African security company ARM
Photo: Niklas Maupoix
It is available to download online. Give children the opportunity at school to explain how they are feeling. • Be brave enough to discuss with children what could happen. Talking about the subject will help to protect
them. It doesn’t need to be any more difficult than speaking about road safety. • Take a cautious approach if you notice that a child is not well. Removing a child from a familiar environment can be traumatic. The child may well love
the parent who is abusing them. Tread carefully. Once the investigation is underway, it must be completed as quickly as possible. The child should be surrounded by a network of trustworthy and reliable people who can provide support.
(African Risk Mitigation) has entered into a partnership with NetClean in the fight against the distribution of CSAI. Together, the two companies will help and support internet service providers and police forces across the entire African continent to prevent material showing sexual abuse of children from being produced, downloaded and distributed. “We think ARM will be a very valuable partner. Launching NetClean’s products in Africa will involve a great deal of work, in particular as far as training is concerned. But ARM does not have a purely commercial interest in this. It is also fully committed to the cause,” says Christian Berg.
SENDER: NetClean Technologies Sweden AB Första Långgatan 30 SE-413 27 Gothenburg Sweden
The EFC investigates trends within online CSAI Most CSAI are still distributed via P2P systems on the web. Long-term consumers tend to be members of closed networks, while internet searches enable new users to access material. These are some of the conclusions of the EFC’s most recent report.
T
he European Financial Coalition
(EFC) investigates trends in producing, distributing and accessing commercial CSAI. In October, the organisation presented a new report which, among other things, highlighted seven trends. These can be summarised as follows:
content and there is a risk that this material will find its way onto the commercial market for CSAI. 4. Analyses of web searches show a decline in demand for traditional, popular CSAI series. However, the interest in generic search terms for CSAI remains unchanged. More and more searches are taking place on the borders of legality. The conclusion is that while the more sophisticated consumers of CSAI use closed networks to access material, internet searches continue to act as a gateway for less experienced users. 5. Internet searches show that
demand for CSAI are increasing in emerging markets, such as Latin America. In line with the growth in internet use worldwide, we can expect new material, new payment models and increasing interest from regions which previously had no internet searches coverage.
1. The overwhelming majority of the CSAI available are non-commercial and is distributed on the open web using P2P systems. Commercial distribution does take place, but it is estimated “Internet to make up less than ten show that demand per cent of the market. The volumes are approximately for CSAI is increasthe same as those identified ing in emerging during the course of an earlier investigation in 2008 (VGT). markets”
6. Data from INHOPE
abuse on the internet on a pay per view
shows that the majority of the servers storing commercially distributed CSAI are located in the following countries: the USA, Russia, Kazakhstan, Japan, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Germany, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
3. A growing number of young people are using internet-based services to produce sexual
7. Investigations by the Internet Watch Foundation indicate that, despite the large number of URLs used to distribute commercial CSAI, there are very few productive distributors.
2. There is a growing market for live streaming of child
basis. This means that the authorities need to act quickly and work together to introduce monitoring and preventative measures.
EFC FACTS • The European Financial Coalition against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Online (EFC) brings together key actors from law enforcement, the private sector and civil society in Europe with the common goal of fighting against commercial sexual exploitation of children online. • The EFC is chaired by Europol (European • Cybercrime Centre – EC3) and led by a • Steering Committee composed of representatives of Europol-EC3, Missing Children Europe, INHOPE, EUROJUST, Visa Europe, Mastercard, PayPal, Microsoft, Google, CEPOL and International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC). It’s secretariat is hosted at and managed by Missing Children Europe.
NetClean Technologies Sweden AB Första Långgatan 30 SE-413 27 Gothenburg Sweden
Tel: +46 31 719 08 00 Fax: +46 31 13 89 50 info@netclean.com
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