Adult websites Pornhub and YouPorn have both announced that they will be activating HTTPS encryption on their sites, after the US government ruled in favour of allowing ISPs to sell their customers' browsing history.

HTTPS is a security technology that protects your browsing information as it passes between your computer and the server of the website you're using. It stops people eavesdropping on your online activity, and prevents hacking techniques like man-in-the-middle attacks.

As two of the 100 most-visited sites in the world, Pornhub and YouPorn are highly security-conscious. In fact, both sites have bug-bounty programmes, where hackers get rewarded for spotting security flaws which could expose sensitive data.

"Here at Pornhub, with more than 70 million daily visitors, we wanted to continue our concerted effort to maximize the privacy of our users, ensuring that what they do on our platform remains strictly confidential. With the switch to HTTPS we are able to protect their identity as well as safeguard them against exposure to malware by third parties," said Corey Price, vice president of Pornhub.

"With this internet communication protocol we can ensure not only the security of our platform, but also that of our users. At the end of the day, we want every single one of them to feel safe and secure on our platform," he said.

As well as combatting malware delivery, one of the principal benefits of HTTPS encryption is that it makes it harder for your ISP to monitor your traffic. While your provider will still have a record of which top-level domain you visited, if the site is using HTTPS, it will not be able to see which individual pages you browsed.

This may come as a particular comfort following this week's news that the US House of Representatives has voted to roll back privacy regulations that blocked internet providers from selling their customers' browsing data without their consent.

"Privacy is paramount to us," Price told IT Pro; "it always has been. With HTTPS, users can rest assured that their browsing data is encrypted, not visible to anyone and, therefore, cannot be sold. While this transition from HTTP and HTTPS was in the works before Congress' appeal, the timing is good."

"As one of the most viewed websites in the world, it is our duty to ensure the confidentiality and safety of our users. The transition to HTTPS will go a long way in solidifying our users' privacy," said YouPorn vice president Brad Burns.

"The data on our webpages will now be encrypted, making it significantly harder for third parties to penetrate," he added. "Now, our community members can peruse our site even more safely, knowing they have that extra layer of security."

Pornhub has already switched its HTTPS on, with YouPorn expected to follow suit on Tuesday.

Security experts have spotted a Tinder scam that tricks users into signing up for porn site membership in exchange for 'verification'.

The scam, identified by cyber security firm Symantec, uses chatbots to initiate conversations with the dating app's male users. After luring victims in with witty banter, the bots ask them if they are "verified by Tinder".

Note that this is separate to Twitter-style 'blue tick' verification, which Tinder launched last year for celebrities and public figures. Instead, the bots explain that this verification is "a free service tinder put up, to verify the person you wanna meet isn't a serial killer lol".

Victims are directed to an external site, which uses copycat formatting, fonts and logos of Tinder's branding. It promises that after completing the verification form, users will receive a code that they can send to their match for confirmation.

The verification form is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a scam. After providing a user name, password and email, victims must 'verify their age' using a credit card.

The site proudly proclaims that there is "no charge to become verified", but included at the bottom of the page is fine print revealing that unless they specifically uncheck the box, they are opting in to "special FREE bonus offer".

This 'bonus offer' consists of memberships to porn and explicit webcam sites, which have a total value of 118.76. These sites operate on an affiliate model, which means that the scammers receive a cut of the membership fees for every user they bring to it.

"Scammers are naturally attracted to large online communities and the surge in online dating amongst millennials makes these sites a prime target," said Nick Shaw, Norton's EMEA vice president and general manager.

"In the online world, as with anything in life, people aren't always what they seem," he said. "Therefore it's important that you are vigilant so you can enjoy dating online without placing yourself in a vulnerable position."

The UK government has launched a public consultation for plans to introduce age checks on pornography websites, with internet providers, charities, academics and more being asked to contribute.

Under the proposals, all sites containing pornographic material will have to introduce strict age checks to ensure users are over 18 years old. This applies to all content that would be given an 18 or R18 rating by the BBFC.

Internet Safety and Security Minister Baroness Joanna Shields said: "The internet is a tremendous resource for learning and creativity but it is important to make sure that children are able to make the most of all it has to offer in a safe way. Keeping children safe online is one of the government's greatest priorities.

"Just as we do offline, we want to make sure children are prevented from accessing pornographic content online which should only be viewed by adults."

Under the new rules, regulators will be given the power to enforce the law and monitor compliance by commercial pornography providers.

The legislation would allow the government to impose civil sanctions where breaches are found but sites will, however, be given control over how they set age verification controls.

"We all have a responsibility to protect our children and face up to new challenges presented by the internet," said Karen Bradley, minister for preventing abuse, exploitation and crime. "Our objective is clear - we want to protect children from distressing or unrealistic images of sex and from content that can harm them.

"I work closely with victims and survivors of sexual abuse, and every young person that I have spoken to who has experienced abuse themselves has told me that action needs to be taken to restrict access to pornography by children. Today is about holding companies to account, shielding young people from material that they should not be able to access and protecting their childhood."

It was thought that EU-wide net neutrality laws could delay the government's previous pledge to ban ISPs from enabling porn access by default. By introducing more comprehensive age checks, however, the responsibility of protecting children from pornographic content is placed in the hands of the sites instead.

17/07/15: EU net neutrality laws 'could delay PM's porn filter plans'

EU-wide net neutrality laws may spoil Prime Minister David Cameron's plans to ban ISPs from letting users access porn by default, if they are implemented.

The net neutrality code proposed by the EU means that internet traffic is treated the same across all EU member states, thus stopping governments from blocking access to websites.

The Single Telecom Market proposal would also mean that parental controls can only be put in place with consent from the user, making default blocks impossible.

But the Department of Culture, Media and Sport told The Telegraph: "We are now exploring options and will be providing an update once a course of action has been agreed. We take great pride in our world-leading approach to child online safety and would never accept a position which diminished our ability to protect children online."

The government has installed a third-party regulator to overlook the plans, ensuring ISPs have sufficient measures in place, though ISPs including Sky, BT and TalkTalk already block porn by default now.

Cameron proposed the initiative following a Childline poll that revealed a tenth of 12 to 13-year-olds are concerned they may be addicted to pornography.

Culture secretary Sajid Javid said the process would be no different than adults being asked to prove their age when buying a porn DVD or magazine. "With the shift to online, children can access adult content on websites without restriction, intentionally or otherwise," he told the BBC. "That is why we need effective controls online that apply to UK and overseas. This is about giving children the best start in life."

He added: "We do not want to prevent adults from accessing legal content but we do want to protect our children from harmful material, so they are free to develop a healthy attitude to sex and relationships."

In addition to ensuring ISPs are adhering to the rules with a regulatory body conducting checks, there would be extra measures to check ages as people try to access the websites. For example, some countries have introduced electronic ID cards that check a user's identity as they try to enter.

Javid said introducing such initiatives may occur in the future, but that the final decision would be down to the regulatory body. "The key thing is, it's not for me or politicians to decide what's effective. That will be the job of a regulator, but it is possible," he said.

More malware targeting popular porn sites emerged over the weekend, with Pornhub and YouPorn being the latest affected.

Spotted by security firm Malwarebytes, hackers inserted a rogue piece of legitimate-seeming code into the ExoClick ad network used by the websites, with the resulting adware appearing as an ad banner.

The malicious code, known as cookiecheck.js, was quickly removed by the ad network and by the porn sites' publisher, MindGeek, thereby protecting their 800 million monthly visitors.

But had the code not been spotted quickly, it would have redirected victims to an Angler Exploit Kit that hackers could have used to infect their victims' computers with programs like ransomware.

Other porn sites have been served similar malware by hackers in the last fortnight, with xHamster targeted by an SSL malvertising campaign that was first seen on Yahoo.com and MSN.com.

Malwarebytes called the recent prevalance of porn site attacks "strange", adding: "During the past several months, high profile malvertising attacks against top adult sites have been sparse.

"This makes what we have seen during the past couple of weeks very unusual but also impactful given the sheer volume of traffic these sites receive."

MindGeek said in a statement: "We were alerted to the presence of a malicious advertisement appearing on a select few of Pornhub's web properties. It was quickly determined that the malware originated from a third party advertising partner, and we responded immediately to disable all advertisements associated with this third party, and continue to actively investigate this incident."

Millions of randy souls have had their personal details, including sexual preferences, leaked online after hook-up site AdultFriendFinder was hacked.

Up to 3.9 million of the site's 64 million users had personal information such as their email addresses and bedroom predilections revealed online, according to Channel 4 News, which broke the story last night.

The casual dating network has now called in police and security experts to help it understand just how far reaching the hack has been.

A hacker known only as ROR[RG] posted the names, emails, postcodes, dates of birth and computer IP addresses of victims of the hack in a forum.

Their sexual orientations and sexual preferences were also posted publicly by the hacker, found Channel 4 News, which said no credit card details have yet surfaced.

The site's owner, FriendFinder Networks, released a statement saying it "fully appreciates the seriousness of the issue", and would take appropriate steps to protect members.

But security expert Graham Cluley wrote in a blog post that, using a pseudonym and fake email address, he had been able to sign up to the site without receiving any warning the site was insecure.

He said: "Appropriate steps to protect your customers, AdultFriendFinder? How about posting a warning on your website so your members can look out for phishing emails, or malware which might be sent to them?

"What about some advice about the type of threats that users could be exposed to - including, potentially, blackmail - if their membership of the site is uncovered?"

It's the latest in a string of high profile data breaches, including health insurance firm CareFirst's loss of 1.1 million customers' details revealed yesterday by FireEye Mandiant, but which happened a year ago.

Meanwhile, TalkTalk confirmed in February that a fraction of its 4 million customerbase had their accounts compromised in a cyber attack.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) this week indicated it would be reluctant to use new powers proposed by the EU to fine data breach organisations up to five per cent of their annual turnover.

A statement from FriendFinder Networks read: "FriendFinder Networks Inc. has only just been made aware of this potential issue and understands and fully appreciates the seriousness of the issue.

"We have already begun working closely with law enforcement and have launched a comprehensive investigation with the help of leading third-party forensics expert, Mandiant.

"Until the investigation is completed, it will be difficult to determine with certainty the full scope of the incident, but we will continue to work vigilantly to address this potential issue and will provide updates as we learn more from our investigation.

"We cannot speculate further about this issue, but rest assured, we pledge to take the appropriate steps needed to protect our customers if they are affected."

OPINION:Porn sites will have proper age restrictions if the Conservatives are returned to government following May's general election.

Prime Minister David Cameron's pledge aims to protect children after a Childline survey found 18 per cent of 12-13 year-olds had seen upsetting pornography pictures on the web.

Many porn sites do require a visitor to enter their date of birth or confirm they're aged over 18, but users can simply select a date or tick a box rather than provide any real proof of age.

However, the Tories say an independent regulator would require ISPs to block porn sites that don't comply.

Culture secretary Sajid Javid said: "We need effective controls online that apply to UK and overseas.

"This is about giving children the best start in life; we do not want to prevent adults from accessing legal content but we do want to protect our children from harmful material, so they are free to develop a healthy attitude to sex and relationships."

This regulator would also be tasked with finding out the best way to introduce age restrictions, the Conservatives say.

But Javid told BBC Breakfast one way to age-check porn users would be with credit cards presumably for paid-access sites.

Another method, he said, was adopting electronic IDs (EIDs) as used in countries such as Finland.

Restricting porn access is a laudable principle, but not one that should be automatically supported without consideration of just how it will be done.

Javid's suggestions of age-checking people with their credit cards, or with EIDs, is worrying due to the potential for misuse.

But, as Sally Annereau, data protection analyst from Taylor Wessing law firm, says, it's probably the only way to do it.

"Implementing online processes that can reliably verify a person's age will inevitably require the collection of, access to, or sharing of even more unique information about people," she warns.

Such a measure raises many questions around data protection how can these details be collected and safeguarded to protect privacy?

Furthermore, it raises the risk of ID theft, fraud, and surveillance.

"It would be a privacy own goal to implement online safeguards without first taking account of all the wider risks and legal challenges for society that those measures also raise," Annereau says.

The GCHQ isn't exactly averse to a bit of spying, with ex-NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealing the NSA had provided the British spy agency with data on UK citizens from its own snooping programmes.

Additionally, the Tories' own record on security is questionable in the extreme.

Cameron recently pledged to ban encrypted communication services that make it hard for spooks to see what people are saying.

Then there's the Snooper's Charter, officially the Communications Data Bill, which the Lib Dems managed to block, but introduced by their coalition partners.

If passed, it would have made it easier for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to access communications data, forcing ISPs and websites to store information on users for at least 12 months.

The Tories may try to push the bill through Parliament again after May 7, and GCHQ is no doubt resorting to other methods to collect data on citizens but why make it easier for them?

As content filtering company Bloxx's sales director, Mark Gibson, says: "It seems naive to suggest this would not impeach on people's privacy - if implemented the system will, to a degree, monitor people's browsing."

Instead, there must be another way forward - Taylor Wessing's Annereau certainly thinks there is.

She points to a range of potential technologies that also offer more privacy-friendly features and give parents greater control and peace of mind.

However, she adds: "One big consideration around placing the onus on sites is that it may be challenging to develop standardised solutions."

Gibson suggests another route. "There needs to be education and discussion about adult content, to try and tackle the reason more and more children are searching it out, rather than placing it behind a set of easily bypassed barriers," he says.

Either way, while we might agree with the sentiment proposed by the Conservatives, it's hard to see how it will prove practical without further eroding the privacy of UK citizens.

A discussion on the prevalence of porn in today's society should be encouraged, but there's no quick answer thinking through the possible consequences takes time and introducing such a measure shouldn't be left to a single party with a poor record on privacy.

TalkTalk will block all content unsuitable for children if customers don't opt out of its Homesafe porn filter.

The company says any users who don't want parental controls switched on automatically will see a pop up box appear when they try to access adult themed content. They will then be able to decide whether to turn Homesafe on or off.

TalkTalk's four million subscribers will be diverted to the Homesafe account settings to set exceptions and the level of security they require, the company said. Although the Homesafe option will be pre-configured to be 'on', customers can switch it to off whenever they like.

Alex Birtles, TalkTalk's head of external communications, said in a blog post: "Filters will only ever be applied if the customer has consented and they're able to change their mind or edit their level of protection at any point."

Homesafe was introduced in 2011, but TalkTalk didn't start pushing the service until March 2012, when it began asking all new customers to decide whether they wanted to activate HomeSafe as part of the sign-up process when they joined TalkTalk.

Birtles said 80 per cent of its customers welcomed the move, while nearly two thirds said if TalkTalk hadn't prompted them, they wouldn't have switched the controls on at all.

Homesafe is just one of the actions TalkTalk is taking in order to make the online environment a safer place for children. "Last year we helped launch InternetMatters.org, a ground-breaking not-for-profit organisation that gives parents expert advice about online safety issues, such as cyberbullying, inappropriate content and sexting," Birtles said.

"Establishing an independent online safety organisation is a big commitment, but it's an important part of how we're making Britain better off."

Virgin, BT, Sky and TalkTalk's porn filters are being used by less than one in seven households, Ofcom has reported.

The four main ISPs, Ofcom and the government discussed the plans last year, requesting all four providers installed such filters with a deadline of December 2013.

Virgin Media was the last to install the filter, which was completed in February. It says only four per cent of its new customers are using the tool, which is much lower than TalkTalk customers, where it is thought 36 per cent of customers are doing so.

TalkTalk had previously been using its HomeSafe tools that also protect children and families from harmful websites, just like the porn filter, so it's no surprise uptake was so high. BT said five per cent of its customers were using its tools, while eight per cent of Sky users had opted in to block porn websites.

The report revealed that Virgin Media was only offering the service to 35 per cent of its customers, while the three other ISPs offered every new customer the tools.

Ofcom said: "The majority of new Virgin Media installations involve an engineer visit. Virgin Media believes that in many cases the engineer runs the broadband activation process and bypasses or ignores the filtering choice. It has recognised that this is a failure in process and indicated it is taking steps to address this gap.""

Virgin Media's chief executive, Tom Mockridge, responded to the report saying: "Ofcom's report clearly highlighted where Virgin Media has fallen short in meeting our original commitments.

"We take our responsibility to help families stay safe online very seriously and have taken immediate action to improve how we meet our commitments to government."

ISPs will be forced to offer parental filters that block pornographic content by default to new and existing customers before the end of 2013.

The announcement was made by Claire Perry MP, David Cameron's special advisor for the prevention of childhood sexualisation and commercialisation, at last Friday's Westminister eForum.

Speaking at the event, Perry said pornographic content will be blocked as standard, unless users intervene, according to a report on Wired.

"There's something different about the online world," she said. "It is anonymous, it is easy and it is efficient to share imagery."

The filters can also be made time dependent, she added, so they can be switched off during certain times of day.

A similar service has been offered to new customers by ISP Talk Talk since March 2012, before being rolled out to its existing customers more recently.

In a statement to IT Pro, Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA), said it disagreed with the Government's push for default filtering tools.

"ISPs have already taken several steps on making the internet safer, with many offering or working towards an active choice +' system," said Lansman.

"Whilst filtering has a role to play, alongside education and equipping parents with the tools they need, we remain opposed to default filtering, as it is only one part of the solution, and can be circumvented and lead to over or under blocking".

Lansman then called on the Government to provide "greater clarity" about its plans, claiming "it is not quite clear if this goes beyond what the big ISPs have already committed to," he added.

Cyber criminals continue to revamp commonly used techniques such as phishing, spam and pornography to trick mobile users into installing malware.

In particular, phishing emails from prominent sites such as Paypal and advertisements to download fake applications claiming to be Angry Birds pose a threat to smartphone users, according to a Blue Coat Systems 2013 Mobile Malware Report.

As the usage of mobile devices continue to grow and the BYOD trend becomes more prevalent, smartphones are increasingly at greater risk of contracting malware, the research warned.

Among the many causes of mobile malware, pornography poses the biggest risk for mobile users.

Although mobile malware that can truly break the security of a phone is still undeveloped, the Mobile Malware Report suggests that this will change as the amount of businesses providing access to corporate assets through mobile devices continues to increase.

"Mobile malware that truly breaks the security model of the phone is still in its infancy with little evidence of attacks beyond a few incidents that targeted the Android platform," the report said. "In 2013, this is likely to change as adoption of mobile devices continues to grow rapidly and businesses increasingly provide access to corporate assets."

The report added that knowledge about the tools and practices needed to make safe choices on mobile devices is lacking.

Potential malware issues that mobile usage can cause include:

Increased risk of passwords being exposed to onlookers because they are not completed masked.

Difficulty recognising phishing attacks through links because of the shortened format.

Fake sites are harder to spot because they usually appear differently on mobile devices.

Mobile versions of websites are often crafted and hosted by third parties, which conditions users to become comfortable visiting unknown URLs.

New mobile application developers constantly emerge, making it difficult to chose between the reputable applications and the harmful ones.

"Globally, it's the simple phishing techniques that are most likely to succeed," said Chris Pace, director of product and solutions marketing at Blue Coat Systems.

"Shortened URLs are common and a smartphone or tablet user may be less prepared for dealing with these kinds of links on a shiny new mobile device than they were with their trusty laptop," he continued.

The report notes that in order to understand the risks of mobile malware, one must look at the behavioural patterns of people that use mobile devices.

The average amount of time that a person spends browsing the mobile web is 72 minutes a day (independent of the time spent on native applications). Within that time, about 11 minutes are used for content related to computers/internet.

Furthermore, one hour is used for content consumption ranging from social networking, shopping, business/economy and entertainment.

Among the many causes of mobile malware, pornography poses the biggest risk for mobile users.

"More than 20 percent of the time that a user went to a malicious site, they were coming from a pornography site," the report read.

Pornography was also the leading source of malware for desktops when it was introduced to the internet. Now, search engine poisoning (SEP) has taken its spot as the leading cause of desktop malware.

The report noted that it is reasonable to expect the future of mobile malware to follow in the path of desktops, targeting larger platforms as they become easier to infiltrate.

A few prevention methods for mobile malware that the reports suggests are:

- Block all content to mobile and desktop devices from dangerous categories, including pornography, phishing and spam.

- Block executable content from un- rated domains and categories that typical host malware, such as Dynamic DNS hosts.

The report also advises businesses to enforce policies on web applications (desktops browsing), mobile web applications (mobile browsing) and native mobile applications that are running on its network, especially for businesses moving towards BYOD initiatives.

The Government has rejected calls to automatically block internet access to porn to prevent children from accidentally seeing it.

Ministers said the proposals were not widely supported.

The Government made its decision last month but has only now revealed its conclusion following a public consultation.

During the ten-week consultation, over 3,500 submissions were made and the majority did not support an automatic block.

If the Government had agreed to the block, it would have meant users would have to contact their ISP to view adult material.

Just over a third of respondent (35 per cent) supported ISP blocking.

The Government is said to be working with ISPs to encourage parents to use filters to block adult sites and verify ages of those setting up filtering controls.

Those that opposed the move said this could lead to non-pornographic material being blocked, such as sites dealing with sexual health and identity.

The report praised the four largest UK ISPs - BT, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Sky - for signing up to a code of practice and offering customers a choice of filters.

However, it added that providers should go further and actively encourage users to turn filters on.

Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, one of the campaign groups opposing default filtering, said: "This is a positive step that strikes the right balance between child safety and parental responsibility without infringing on civil liberties and freedom of speech.

"The policy recognises it is parents, not Government, who are responsible for controlling what their children see online and rightly avoids any kind of state-mandated blocking of legal content," he added.

Nearly 3,000 O2 customers could be accused of copyright infringement by a known pornographic film producer from the start of next month.

Golden Eye International, acting on behalf of producer Ben Dover, has been granted permission from the High Court to pursue claims against O2 customers for allegedly downloading films.

The company applied for a Norwich Pharmacal Order (NPO) against O2 in September 2011, which would have forced the firm to hand over details of more than 9,000 customers.

The application was then referred to the High Court who said the firm can use the names and addresses of 2,845 O2 customers to pursue copyright claims against them.

However, the High Court told the firm that the tone of the letters sent out to O2 customers would need to be "reasonable" in tone and clearly state how people can contest the claims.

Advisory group Consumer Focus said Golden Eye planned to send out pay up or else'- style missives, which the court had described as "objectionable in a number of respects."

In a statement, Consumer Focus said: "The letters wrongly asserted that bill payers are liable for any copyright infringement that may have occurred on their internet connection, and the court found the 700 Golden Eye planned to demand from O2 customers was unsupportable'."

The organisation's chief executive, Mike O'Connor, said Consumer Focus is teaming up with Citizens Advice to help O2 customers that find themselves on the receiving end of a Golden Eye letter.

"We have also written to all the major internet service providers and online hosts who may be required to assist copyright owners to enforce their rights," said O'Connor.

"We are urging them to be rigorous in protecting their customers' personal data to make sure the rights of consumers and copyright owners are fairly balanced."

In a statement to IT Pro, network operator O2, said: "We have no option but to comply with this court order and will be cooperating fully."

ACS:Law, which courted controversy when sending letters to alleged filesharers, has shut down.

No precise reason has been given for the closure of the firm, which had been criticised from various corners, including music industry representative body BPI and operator O2.

The law firm sent "speculative invoicing" letters asking the supposed copyright infringers to pay up a one-off penalty or face going to court.

ACS:Law has been involved in a court case in which it was representing pornography licensee MediaCAT a company that has also reportedly shut down as well, according to a Torrent Freak report.

Last month, the law firm chose to stop sending letters during the court case after Andrew Crossley, head of ACS:Law, said he had received death threats, and had his email hacked.

MediaCAT had attempted to pull out of the case altogether, but Judge Birss QC told the court it would not be so simple to stop the case, partly because the actual copyright holders were not present for the hearing.

Now, lawyers for the defendants want the case to continue so damages can be claimed.

The case is due to be heard at the Patent County Courts on Tuesday afternoon

Meanwhile, Crossley faces an investigation from the Solicitor's Regulation Authority (SRA).

The SRA had been contacted by Which? after the consumer protection group took umbrage with ACS:Law's actions.

Peter Bradwell, a copyright specialist from the Open Rights Group, said it would be a shame if ACS:Law manage to avoid accountability for any wrongdoing "by disappearing in a puff of smoke like some cartoon villains."

"But the good news here is that the courts are doing the right thing by scrutinising them so closely. It hopefully will make it less likely anybody can get away with these miserable schemes in the future."

Deborah Prince, Which?'s head of legal, said she found it difficult to sympathise with the fall of ACS:Law.

"These pay up or else' letters have caused incalculable stress to many people," Prince said.

"We hope that the judge in tomorrow's court case will clarify the law to ensure that people cannot be persecuted as illegal filesharers simply for owning an IP address."

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are being approached by the Government to discuss the blocking of pornographic sites in the UK.

The Coalition's communications minister, Ed Vaizey, is set to meet with chiefs of big UK broadband companies, including BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, to discuss a blanket ban on the sites to protect children from the content.

Instead, users would have to "opt in" to be able to view pornographic links.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Vaizey said: "This is a very serious matter. I think it is very important that it's the ISPs that some up with solutions to protect children."

"I'm hoping they will get their acts together so that we don't have to legislate, but we are keeping an eye on the situation and we will have a new communications bill in the next couple of years."

Although no official strategy has been announced, the department for business, schools and innovation (BIS) has confirmed a discussion will take place between the ministers and the ISPs.

"Our objective was not to do what the politicians want us but to do what is right for our customers," added Andrew Heaney, TalkTalk's executive director of strategy and regulation.

"If other companies aren't going to do it of their own volition, then maybe they should be leant on."

However, not everybody is onboard with the idea. Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of the Internet Service Provider's Association (ISPA) told the BBC: "ISPA firmly believes that controls on children's access to the internet should be managed by parents and carers with the tools ISPs provide, rather than being imposed top-down."

"ISPs currently block child abuse content which is illegal and widely regarded as abhorrent. Blocking lawful pornography content is less clear cut, will lead to the blocking of access to legitimate content and is only effective in preventing inadvertent access."

Users downloading media players for pornographic sites may be getting more than they bargain for, according to Russian security specialists.

Kaspersky has reported a second Trojan hidden in downloadable media players for Russian-based porn sites. The Android app sends covert SMS messages at the cost of around 4 a shot

In August, Kaspersky warned of Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.FakePlayer.a' and this new threat is a variant of the same malware, named FakePlayer.b to indicate this relationship.

The infection is a moral tale for modern times as the app's terms and conditions state SMS messages will be sent, with no mention it is a premium service. However, many of the users appear to ignore the T&C warning.

Like its predecessor, this media player only had local Russian numbers in its armoury and would not connect outside that country. Despite this, it would still try to connect and could affect the performance of a smartphone. It might also be a matter of time before international codes are added to the list.

The problem is very similar to the dialler' problem which hit PCs in the days of dial-up modems. These were downloaded in innocent-looking applications and would set up calls to premium lines without warning the user.

"Automatically permitting a new application to access every service that it says it needs to, means you could end up with malicious or unwanted applications doing all sorts of things without requesting any additional information," said Denis Maslennikov, mobile research group manager at Kaspersky Lab.

Kaspersky Lab's experts have predicted more malicious Android apps will emerge in the near future because of the burgeoning popularity of the platform.

Social networking and porn have emerged as the two biggest mobile threats to productivity and security for UK businesses with a mobile workforce, research has shown.

More than half of the 200 IT directors surveyed by research company Vanson Bourne, as part of a poll for IT solutions and service provider Damovo, said that mobile social networking was the biggest danger, while 30 per cent said mobile porn was the top concern.

Mobile gaming was named as the biggest threat by just eight per cent of those polled, with mobile TV taking seven per cent of the vote.

More than nine in 10 said they have faced more security threats as their companies mobile use has grown. Furthermore, 95 per cent of respondents said their company's workforce will be increasingly mobile over the next decade.

Almost two-thirds of survey respondents admitted they found implementing mobile usage policies to be troublesome, while 88 per cent said they would like greater transparency over workers' use of mobile devices to improve security and cost management.

Alex Donnelly, portfolio manager at Damovo UK, told IT PRO that he believes increasing numbers of firms are becoming concerned about workers accessing porn on mobile devices also used for work.

If a laptop or netbook becomes infected after visiting a pornographic website and is then reconnected to the corporate network, the infection can propagate, Donnelly warned.

He emphasised that organisations need to recognise they are not "foolproof" and Donnelly advocated having a company wide policy that involves the use of mobile devices.

"[Businesses] could black and whitelist applications," Donnelly recommended. "This can be as open or restrictive as you wish."

He added that having a device management plan in place can be highly beneficial for a company's security, and protecting devices in the eventuality that they are lost or stolen is also key.

The Information Commissioner's Office recently announced that more than 1,000 data breaches or losses involving personal data had been reported to the body, with the NHS named and shamed as the worst offender.

Germany has come out in opposition to a European Union plan to block internet sites containing images of child sex abuse, saying such sites should be completely deleted rather than just blocked.

The EU commission plan announced earlier this week would see member states developing their own systems to block access to any sites found to feature pornographic photos or images of children.

However, Germany's Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said such punishment wasn't strong enough.

Speaking to the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper, Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger argued that blocking "is not an effective weapon in the fight against child pornography and also leads to a loss of trust among internet users".

"I expect a broad debate ... in which I will push the position 'delete, not block'," the minister added.

Indeed, the position has already found support in Germany from both the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the environmentalist Green Party.

"Internet blocking is technically ineffective and doesn't work," SPD deputy party leader Olaf Scholz said this week, while Green Party internet expert Konstantin von Notz said: "Perpetrators can get around blocks within seconds."

The current EU plan, which requires approval of member states and the European Parliament, was announced in Brussels on Monday by Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU home affairs commissioner.

"Child pornography is a horrible crime. It is not an expression of freedom of speech," she told reporters, adding that systems already in place in Scandinavian countries, Italy and the UK "stop thousands of requests each day".

The UK Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) says both plans have merit. "We are clear about what blocking can do," a spokeswoman told the BBC. "It can stop inadvertent access."

But, she added that, as a "notice and take down" agency, the IWF has the power to remove content if it is hosted in Britain.

"Commercial content moves around a lot," she said. "A mixture of blocking and removal is a good tactic because it's so dynamic."

Germany's opposition to blocking websites is already well established. In November, president Horst Khler refused to sign a law handed down from predecessor Angela Merkel blocking online child pornography, saying it would block access to other innocent sites and would therefore breach Germany's constitution.

However, members of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and child protection groups in Germany support Malmstrom's plans. "Things that are forbidden offline should also be prevented online," said CDU member Wolfgang Bosbach, the chairman of the German parliament's domestic affairs committee.

A third of office workers have admitted to using the Internet to watch pornography in the workplace, a new survey has revealed.

The study, conducted by email security and management firm ProofPoint, was designed to highlight the risks caused by giving workers free reign on the internet, and looked at attitudes towards data security and other enterprise issues.

David Stanley, UK managing director at Proofpoint, said: "The vast majority of security breaches and data losses are down to the user sat in front of the computer. People are always the weakest link and this research shows just how fallible staff can be."

While a third of workers admitted to looking at pornography in the office, just seven per cent have been caught in the act. Other bad office-based behaviour included using company email to send material that was 'not safe for work'.

But some employees don't even need tech to be bad at work. Some 56 per cent admitted to turning up to work drunk. Almost a third also said that they had cancelled or failed to show up for a meeting because they were out drinking.

Stanley said that firms should take responsibility for securing systems, ensuring that such incidents are not allowed to happen.

"A real crossover in the digital realm between personal and professional lives means staff are increasingly relaxed in their use of workplace email and internet. Working longer hours and therefore using these technologies more to stay in touch with friends and family can only heighten the risk," he explained.

The results are based on a survey of 400 workers.

A previous study suggested as much as half of network traffic at offices is made up of porn, gambling, downloads and webmail.

At the beginning of October, Microsoft head honcho Steve Ballmer descended on London to tell the gathered hordes of techies about a new operating system... for cloud computing. But it wasn't long before the Microsoft faithful and the rest of us got to learn more about the Azure OS or, more importantly, about the next Windows OS, cleverly named Windows 7.

At the Professional Developers Conference in LA last week, Ballmer et al showed of an early version of Windows 7 and it looks pretty good.

But Microsoft wasn't the only top tech firm ignoring the economy to launch new products, as Apple revealed its latest MacBook. The new lineup features aluminium casing, a la the Air, and looks exceptionally cool. Apple also cut prices of its cheapest laptops, but didn't launch a much-hoped-for netbook - but let's face it, there are enough on the market as it is.

That didn't stop Apricot from clawing its way out of its 10-year-old-grave to offer its very own netbook, the PicoBook Pro. The Linux version went down so poorly it's now only sold with Windows. Nicely done, Apricot. Read our review of the Pico here.

Laptops weren't the only gadgets stealing headlines last month. The very first phone featuring Google's Android operating system finally hit UK stores, as T-Mobile released its G1 - read our review here. The been-there-done-that HTC handset won't blow the iPhone out of the water, but developers will likely be as excited to create their very own mobile apps as security researchers were to find vulnerabilities.

All these shiny new releases might make it sound like October was a fantastic month for IT, but there were some lows and we're not talking the economy here, either. (We're sick of talking about it already, in fact.)

No, the government has revealed further plans to track calls and browser sessions, to the disappointment of many who don't like the idea of being surveilled when they order pizza and look up porn.

Of course, if the current rate of data breaches continues, it won't just be the government who knows your communication predilections, but anyone who picks a USB stick up off the pub floor (gross, actually) or buys a stolen laptop off eBay.

Indeed, the government's data watchdog Richard Thomas claimed there's been 277 breaches reported to the Information Commissioner's Office this year, and the majority were from public sector organisations.

He was speaking at this year's RSA Europe, which IT PRO attended; click here for all the coverage. Aside from RSA and PDC, we also took in the Smartphone Show in London, with all the news from the Symbian faithful.

Social networking is popular, that is undisputable, but figures revealed today suggest that the success of sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo is now outstripping the most popular of online services porn.

According to Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at web stats firm Hitwise, who has analysed stats from over 10 million web users, the trend is clearly heading away from filth and towards trivial socialising online.

Web searches provide an almost real-time view of how society and people are changing and some of his findings are great trivia, such as the fact that elbows, belly button fluff and ceiling fans are on the list of people's top fears alongside social intimacy and rejection.

"There are some patterns to our internet use that we tend to repeat very specifically and predictably, from diet searches, to dresses, to what we do around the holidays," Tancer said.

He said surfing for porn had dropped to about 10 per cent of searches from 20 per cent a decade ago, and the hottest internet searches now are for social networking sites.

"As social networking traffic has increased, visits to porn sites have decreased," said Tancer, indicated that the 18-24 year old age group particularly was searching less for porn.

"My theory is that young users spend so much time on social networks that they don't have time to look at adult sites."