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Microsoft gives sniffing technology to ISPs

by on17 December 2009

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Saving the children


Software giant Microsoft has given ISPs new tools to battle child pornography. The software, dubbed PhotoDNA, which Redmond has given the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), uses unique "signatures" of pornography to find images of minors being sexually abused.

NCMEC chief executive Ernie Allen said on Wednesday in a conference call with reporters that the software will have an extraordinary impact.  At the moment it is possible for images of children to stay in circulation long after the child molesters have been jailed.

Microsoft researchers worked with Dartmouth College computer science professor Hany Farid to create PhotoDNA software that pinpoints identifying characteristics in digital images that computers can scan for online.

Unlike current digital image-identification software, PhotoDNA reliably identifies pictures even if size, colouring or other characteristics have been altered. The NCMEC is going to create a list of signatures of "the worst of the worst" child pornography images. It will then release the software to ISPs who can use it to find which pictures are being sent around its network.

PhotoDNA is being incorporated into Microsoft's Bing search engine so it is expected that Redmond will start finding some of the pictures itself.
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