Is this a blagger that I see before me?
Thoughts, opinions, interesting snippets and gossip from ZDNet UK's news editor
Wednesday 7 February 2007, 11:36 PM
MySpace NoShow. And no Larry either!
Kevin Poulsen, journalist and security expert, has just told the RSA Conference 2007 about how he exposed that child sex offenders were using the MySpace social networking site to contact children.
Last year Poulsen wrote a program that cross-referenced MySpace's user list against the official US database of convicted offenders. This flagged up any who were using genuine registration details, and led to at least one arrest.
Child safety online is an important social issue (although obviously not an enterprise IT one), so it's good to see Poulsen appear on a panel alongside other experts, called Pandora's Box, Youth and the Internet.
It would also be good to hear from MySpace, but unfortunately they're not represented. As the panel moderator explained -- "The chief security officer for MySpace was on the panel at one stage, but he dropped out. I don't know why".
Obviously panel droppouts aren't anything new. But, in the interests of balance, it's a shame that no-one from MySpace is here. Makes it tricky to report both sides of the argument. RSA did russle up a representative from rival social networking site FaceBook, so we learned that their approach to privacy is different (some might conclude more rigorous) than MySpace's.
But for the record, MySpace is backing a proposed US law that would force sex offenders to register their email address, so they could be blocked by web sites.
And again for the record, Poulsen isn't impressed. "It has the feeling of them looking for an easy way out," he said, pointing out that the move wouldn't do anything to detect new offenders or potentially dangerous activity.
Next up, Larry Ellison....
UPDATE:
Or maybe not. The head of Oracle is off with the flu. Cue much disappointment from the audience, and several journalists panicking about what their afternoon news story will be....
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