News Make a difference
Q2 2013
‘We all have to take responsibility for the problem of child sex abuse’
A number of other speakers also returned to the problem of images of abuse. “If we work together we can solve parts of this problem. Our product NetClean ProActive locates images and videos of abuse stored in a company’s network and servers.
The conference brings together the north European elite of politics, business and research into the digital economy. The aim of Digital Horizons is to explore the opportunities, challenges and threats of our digital future over the course of one day. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who introduced the theme Technology, politics and a sustainable ecosystem, emphasised the importance of combating online CSAI. “Online child Christian Berg pornography involves terrible suffering. To put a stop to it completely we have to change the constitution, but there are other ways to handle the problem. People need to be aware of safety issues relating to the internet and take responsibility,” says Carl Bildt.
Foto: Ola Jacobsen
“By all means start up cool new websites, but take responsibility for the problem of child sexual abuse images (CSAI). Talk to us and start off with a good solution from the get-go.” This is how Christian Berg, CEO of NetClean, ended his presentation at The Economist conference Digital Horizons 2013 at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in June.
Swedish Foreign minister Carl Bildt emphasised the importance of combating online child pornography.
It works not only as an antivirus solution but also aids the police in conducting effective investigations,” explained Christian Berg. Assisted by ProActive, companies can thus find any images of abuse in their network, secure the evidence and hand the matter over to the police and prosecution service. Using NetClean’s free product Analyze, the police can quickly classify images in an investigation. Once an image has been classified it never needs to be assessed again. This means that the next investigation will be much speedier for the police as instead of stopping once they have found enough material for a prosecution, they have time to go through all the investigative material. “This is important because when the police have time to look at all the images seized they also have a chance of finding the children depicted and preventing further abuse.” According to data from NetClean’s products, at least 0.5% of all em-
ployees at any ordinary company are interested in CSAI. “Many of these people are ashamed of this and hate themselves; they try to stop but gradually get more and more out of control. Studies show that a significant proportion of such people develop fantasies about carrying out abuse themselves and that many actually enact these fantasies. Most of them abuse children with whom they have some form of contact in their daily life,” reveals Christian Berg. By identifying the people who are interested in CSAI and putting a stop to them, we prevent such people from reaching the so-called abuser level, i.e. a level where they take the step from looking at images and fantasising about abuse to actually turning these fantasies into reality. “We have solutions so that authorities and companies are able to say ‘Stop, this is not right’,” says Christian Berg.
➤
Sharing knowledge pays off Awareness of the extent of the child sexual abuse images problem is growing. The fact that more and more people, within both the police and the business world, are realising it exists is helping to drive technical innovation forward. We are involved as experts in the majority of major projects now underway all over the world designed to stop CSAI, and NetClean’s products are being scrutinised for use as tools in this fight. One example is Project VIC, which encompasses the largest and most influential federal authorities in the USA (see adjoining article). In this instance, we are contributing both expertise and technology, and we will then incorporate what we find out into our solutions. As with several of our other collaborations, project VIC benefits both parties. We help them to develop their concepts, and we are able to study and utilise this knowledge in our products. This is a fantastic way for us to lead from the front, something which is always our greatest challenge. We can build up even better content in our databases and acquire access to new technical components. And it goes without saying that in the end this favours our customers in the form of even better products. This type of partnership provides opportunities to test our products on new markets and in new contexts. Our hope is that this will drive development to take place at a faster pace so that we can achieve a better world even sooner. Have a lovely summer!
The USA cracks down Federal police authorities in the USA are joining forces in the nationwide Project VIC in a serious fight against child sexual abuse images (CSAI). By adopting a new approach and focusing on the victims, the aim is to rescue more children while also convicting more criminals. Technology from NetClean is being used for this task. Finding an effective way to stop CSAI can be challenging for a country as large as the USA, partly because it is a big country, but above all because, aside from task forces, there is limited coordination between the many decentralised and self-governing police authorities. And it is coordination and collaboration in particular that are extremely important in investigations of sexual attacks against children. “We want to be much more efficient at finding new victims than we currently are, and one important means of doing this is to use innovative technology to find child pornography material,”says Jim Cole, National Program Manager for Victim Identification at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Rich Brown (left) and Jim Cole (right) are two of the venting the spread of child sexual abuse images.
focusing more on what isn’t in our databases and by identifying as many victims as possible,” says Jim Cole. Project VIC aims to make police think in reverse and work in a victim-centric rather than a suspect-centric way. “By focusing on victims, we also find perpetrators. And as this results in our finding He confirms that without the right tools more newly-produced images and videos, it’s almost impossible we obtain more informafor police in the field to tion about them than ”We’ve created a review all the material and criminals can be kind of ecosystem before and categorise it. This convicted of more serious in which tools from crimes.” means that after matching against known In the past, each podifferent providers photos has provided lice authority stored data speak the same sufficient evidence to locally in different ways, secure a conviction, language and can which placed significant Police continue on with restrictions on investigative share data.” new investigations, work. But now, Project VIC which means that new is building up a new, unified victims may not be national platform where police authorities discovered. all over the country can collaborate, com“The agents who investigate these cases municate and share data safely. have traditionally focused on convicting the The main bodies involved are the three criminals. We aim to change that now by main federal police agencies, the FBI
New PhotoDNA increases chance of a match
Christian Berg, CEO, NetClean.
A key technique in Project VIC concerns the digital signatures that identify each image. Many investigative systems almost exclusively process binary signatures derived from the images which are made up of a combina-
tion of ones and zeros. The problem is that a signature based on binary data changes as soon as an individual one or zero changes place or disappears, which is the case when images are often manipulated in some way
and the signature is interpreted as a brand new photo. This could, for instance, concern an image saved in another file format or resized and then these ‘new’ images are not detected when the police match against known photos.
on abuse images
leading figures within Project VIC, a national project in the USA tasked with pre-
(Federal Bureau of Investigation), the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and the US Postal Inspection Service, as well as the police authorities in Illinois, Utah, Colorado and Los Angeles. The first step was to agree on a model for categorising images in the same way, explains project coordinator Rich Brown of the ICMEC (International Center for Missing and Exploited Children). All CSAI evidence from the police authorities involved was then collected, categorised and stored in a central database. The providers of the investigative tools have also managed to agree on a common protocol for image signatures. “We’ve created a kind of ecosystem in which tools from different providers speak the same language and can share data. NetClean have been very helpful in this respect, and we now have all the major pro-
What NetClean recommends, and which Project VIC now adopts, are so-called robust signatures and the technology used is Microsoft Photo– DNA, as Johann Hofmann, product manager at NetClean tells us: “It’s based on the pixels in the image
viders on board,” says Rich Brown. According to Johann Hofmann, product manager at the company, NetClean has a central role in Project VIC as the technical engine. “We are contributing tools for reviewing material, sharing information and working in a more victimcentric way by utilising technology such as robust hashing,” he says. The overarching objective of Project VIC is that forensic investigators do not limit their investigation to images that are already known, he explains. The aim is that technology will take care of that element quickly and with a high degree of automation, so that they can concentrate on the remaining 15–25 per cent. “Our motto is ‘no child left behind’. These unseen images will no longer end up locked away in an evidence cabinet. We’ll deal with them now so that we can find and help more victims,” says Rich Brown.
and so is not as sensitive to changes when the image shows the same content. The technology means that despite some manipulation the photo is still recognised, which increases the chances of a match,” he says.
New collaboration helps police to prioritise A collaboration with the British technology company Securus is enabling police to make a rough search of seized material. In its app store, NetClean Forensic Market, NetClean has integrated the Securus glossary of terms often used in child sexual abuse images rings into one of the apps. When the police run suspected child pornography material against the glossary using NetClean Analyze, they can quickly tell if it contains any of the typical words and phrases and thus probably illegal images and films too, according to Johann Hofmann, product manager at NetClean. The files are often given names with clear descriptions of the abuse contained within the visual or audiovisual material to make them easy to search for. “The app is particularly useful for finding unknown material. It can quickly flag suspected material and helps the police to prioritise where the more painstaking search should start,” says Johann Hofmann.
High level Down Under In May NetClean attended a conference held in Brisbane in Australia to which experts from all over the world were invited. The problem of child sexual abuse images and technical solutions to try and resolve it were both discussed at this conference. NetClean held a presentation on its products and a great deal of interest in them was expressed by the participants. Christian Berg, CEO of NetClean, believes the audience and the speakers alike to be extremely knowledgeable. “The conference addresses a problem that we face every day. And since the Australians are well aware of the CSAI problem they know a lot about it, meaning that discussions and dialogue take place at a high level,” he says.
First time at Child Internet Safety
This July NetClean will be taking part in the Child Internet Safety summit. This conference is being held in London and this year is the first time NetClean participates; many of the delegates represent different types of non-profit organisations. According to CEO Christian Berg, because these organisations are often in the front line when it comes to fighting CSAI NetClean wants to be there to spread the word about its products. “Many of the people we work with in the UK will also be there taking part in some way, and that’s why it is important for us to be there too,” he says.
AVSÄNDARE: NetClean Technologies Sweden AB Första Långgatan 30 413 27 Göteborg Sweden
American lawyers’ association opens doors in South America The sexual exploitation of children is on the increase as the Internet becomes more widely used in South America. “A lot of politicians and public officials in South America are aware of this escalating trend and are happy to meet someone who can offer effective assistance,” says Henry Dahl, Legal Advisor at the IABA.
work method so that more children can be identified while abuse is taking place and they can be helped to escape it. The tool also builds up evidence that can be used by prosecutors. “Sadly, the sexual With the assistance of the Inter-American Bar Associa- exploitation of children tion (IABA), NetClean is now available across the South has American continent. Henry Dahl increased ”When perpetrators as the Inand Pelle Garå, Product Manager for WhiteBox at NetClean, are spending make use of techno- ternet has a few weeks in June visiting a numlogy, those whose become Henry Dahl ber of countries to explain about more NetClean’s solutions and to offer task it is to protect widely used in South America. So there’s their products. an increased need to protect children children must have also “We’ll be introducing the free from abuse. When perpetrators make use access to even tool that NetClean offers for crime of technology, those whose task it is to prevention authorities, and also shoprotect children must have access to even better technology” wing how countries can quickly and better technology,” says Henry Dahl. easily block sites using NetClean’s solution for Internet Service ProviThe partnership between the IABA ders,” says Henry Dahl. and NetClean is all about opening doors to Latin America. “We’re delighted to be able to help distribute knowledThe solution consists of NetClean Analyze, an ge of these solutions. And I have high expectations. The analytical tool for the police and prosecutors, together intention is to cover the whole of Latin America in order with NetClean WhiteBox, a blocking tool for Internet to provide better protection for children. That’s a fantastic Service Providers. Analyze may be used free of charge and goal,” says Henry Dahl. simplifies the monotonous, demanding work carried out by police to review large volumes of images depicting the IABA suspected abuse of children. The Inter-American Bar Association (IABA) is an organisation for Using Analyze, police can reduce the workload by lawyers from South, Central and North America. Its primary puraround 90 per cent, which not only frees up resources pose is to support democracy and the development of the rule of law throughout the whole of the American continent. to review more images, but also facilitates a faster
NetClean Technologies Sweden AB Första Långgatan 30 413 27 Göteborg Sweden
Tel: +46 31-719 08 00 Fax: +46 31-13 89 50 info@netclean.com
Would you like to receive our newsletter? Click on newsletter@netclean.com
Are you interested in receiving this newsletter digitally? www.netclean.com