Porn Porn Porn

The enemy within:

Stop students from bypassing your defenses

The threat of the web

The web has replaced email as the primary entry point for malware into a network, with a brand new infected webpage discovered approximately every 4.5 seconds1. The majority of these are legitimate sites – government agencies, Google, MySpace, Facebook, the Cambridge Dictionary, BusinessWeek, and many more have all fallen victim to hackers. Clicking on such pages poses a multitude of risks to networks, including the loss of confidential information, virus and spyware infection and botnet recruitment.

Schools in the front line

K-12 schools are particularly at risk from web-delivered malware – and it is often introduced by the very people they need to protect: students. Not only are many children extremely technically skilled, but they have ample opportunity to work unobserved in internet-connected computer labs and libraries, which are used by hundreds of different students every day.

Unlike corporate environments, where adult users have jobs, salaries and reputations to worry about, K-12 students often don’t know or don’t care about the consequences of their actions to the school network. Bypassing network controls to access restricted websites is usually just considered an entertaining challenge, or a way to burnish an anti-establishment image. However, in addition to ensuring their own network security, schools are held responsible by parents and state and federal laws – such as the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) – with protecting young, impressionable minds from web predators and harmful content. One example of a student bypassing a school’s web filters involved an eighth grader in Texas who downloaded pornography during a study group2.

Bypassing web filters

Students across North America are increasingly turning to anonymizing proxies to bypass their school’s web filters to view pornography or access banned social networking sites. Anonymizing proxies are widespread, with several hundred new proxies published daily. Easy to access and difficult for traditional security software to detect, anonymizing proxies are web sites that trick an organization’s web filter into thinking the user is browsing legitimate content. The user visits the anonymizing site first and enters their intended URL, and the proxy then opens a portal to the student’s desired destination. Traditional web filters only identify the anonymizing proxy URL, not the destination URL, and as such often allow the request. In some cases, the student simply configures his or her web browser to point automatically to the anonymizing proxy, ensuring that all web activity is hidden.

K-12 schools are particularly at risk from web-delivered malware – and it is often introduced by the very people they need to protect: students.

Aside from disguising banned content, anonymizing proxies change constantly, with scores of new ones appearing daily. K-12 school IT administrators spend hours each week tracking down and blocking anonymizing proxies, significantly affecting resources and overheads.

Many web sites also offer daily updated lists of anonymizing proxies. A quick Google search will produce hundreds of anonymizing proxy sites. There are even video instructions on YouTube that show students how to construct one. It is also not difficult for computer savvy students to set up their own anonymizing proxies at home, using one of the many free utilities available online.

Defeating anonymizing proxies

There are a number of ways that schools can complement their existing web filtering technology to identify and block anonymizing proxies:

Reputation detection services••

Real-time proxy detection••

User education••

Reputation detection services

Reputation detection services constantly track publicly known anonymizing proxy sites and the forums3 that exchange their details. They are then able to update a school’s web filters – ideally every 15 minutes or faster – to ensure that the web gateway security solution stays ahead of the student grapevine. Reducing the amount of time an anonymizing proxy is available to a student provides a major inconvenience to their ability to track and use such services.

Real-time proxy detection

Some anonymizing proxies are kept a closely guarded secret, or built at home for the exclusive use of one person. Because their details are not shared they are immune to reputation detection services and must be tracked in real time.

Real-time detection monitors and analyzes all web requests and responses for signs that traffic is being routed through an anonymizing proxy. If one is detected, the request can be blocked. Signs that a student is using an anonymizing proxy include URL strings hidden within other URLs, and partially encrypted URLs. Real-time detection relies on strong decryption capabilities, as many proxies use encryption to hide their actions.

Anonymizing proxies are widespread, with several hundred new proxies published daily.

User education

User education is always a central pillar of enforcing a web acceptable use policy (AUP), and many schools require students and their parents to formally sign their acceptance of such policies and ensure that they are aware of the consequences of violating them. AUPs should always contain a clause forbidding the use of anonymizing proxies, and state that controls are in place to monitor and detect their use. Formal AUPs do deter many students from trying to get around the rules, particularly if that information is part of a memo sent to parents.

Many schools also run internet safety classes as part of their computer curriculum, which can be utilized to explain more fully the dangers of anonymizing proxies and the thinking behind the AUP.

Summary

Anonymizing proxies allow students to bypass their school’s web filters to access inappropriate and blocked content. Their large and ever-changing numbers and ease-of-use make them difficult to block, and schools can find themselves legally liable if minors are accessing pornography and other sites from within the network. However, reputation and real-time detection will identify and block anonymizing proxies, and user education will ensure that students and parents are aware of the risks in bypassing web filters.

PORNography is Growing  Within The Christian Community

Pornography is one of the most prevalent social problems we are facing today. There is a great concern in regards to the rate pornography  is  growing  within  the  Christian Community.  It is happening from the pulpit to the pew.  The number  of  individuals and families that have been  directly or indirectly  impacted is rapidly growing.   The issue continues to snowball  because  to some  degree,  on many  levels it is  initially accepted.  In  some  instances it is  considered to be a passing fad or on the other hand it is simply ignored.  Pornography is dangerous  and  erodes the moral fiber of one’s character.  If you know someone who is involved in  pornography  please don’t wait,  encourage them to get help now!  Since it is so readily accessible it can overtake  and often consume the life of those who partake  in it.  Pornography is really quite selfish.  It can  impair  and shatter the life and self esteem of the addict’s spouse and robs the relationship of  trust,  significance and security.  It also  can cause  a carnal spirit to hover   over the household which invites much spiritual warfare. 

The internet has a plethora of pornographic sites that are  launched  every day.  The images seduce the captive audience of one or more  into an underground world  of  self-indulgent   decadence.   Seeking fulfillment in strip clubs, compulsive eating  and or cyber club. There is much research available to substantiate that it is a growing addiction phenomenon for many.  Here are some questions to ask  or think  about.  If you can answer yes to any of these you need to really get help.

Do you keep secrets about your sexual or romantic activities from those important to you? Do you lead a double life?

Have your needs driven you to have sex in places or situations or with people you would not normally choose?

Do you find yourself looking for sexually arousing articles or scenes in newspapers, magazines, or other media?

Do you find that romantic or sexual fantasies interfere with your relationships or are preventing you from facing problems?

Do you frequently want to get away from a sex partner after having sex? Do you frequently feel remorse, shame, or guilt after a sexual encounter?

Do you feel shame about your body or your sexuality?

Does each new relationship continue to have the same destructive patterns which prompted you to leave the last relationship?

Is it taking more variety and frequency of sexual and romantic activities than previously to bring the same levels of excitement and relief?

Does your pursuit of sex or romantic relationships interfere with your spiritual beliefs or development?

Do your sexual activities include the risk, threat, or reality of disease, pregnancy, coercion, or violence?

Has your sexual or romantic behavior ever left you feeling hopeless?       
                            Are you unable to properly relate to your spouse and there is a physical void in the relationship?

Recently in the news it was announced that we  have many teens who are now starting to do what is called “sextexting.” For too long the subjects  of adultery, fornication, immorality, infidelity, incest, same sex relationships , sex outside of marriage…..  have merely slid  under the Christian radar.   This is getting to be a little  frightening. This should send us all  a  clear warning!   The porn addict spends  endless hours  absorbing images of an unrealistic unattainable  idealistic fantasy via the internet or videos. It is a billion dollar industry.  Unknowingly  these images have become their little god.  Which  really is a form of idolatry.  It impacts not only the addict but the family as well just like any other addiction.  There are  many deeper unresolved issues here. Quite often something that happened in childhood has resurfaced in the addicts mind. The emotional pain has fermented and pornography becomes a destructive  outlet.  Dealing with someone who has an addictive personality can  be  overwhelming and or quite devastating.  You are  really  often dealing with an out of control child encased  in an adult body. They want what they want, when they want it.  It is difficult for them to delay self gratification.  They will do whatever it takes to satisfy their insatiable desire.  It is often difficult for them to see that they are so unreasonably demanding and controlling. An intervention is constructive, warranted and often necessary in order to begin the path to recovery. 

Talking  about  sexual issues  openly will help dispel  a lot of  the rumors, myths and  inappropriate behavior that has gone on and on…   Education is key.  No one really often wants to really come out and  discuss  or say; what God has to say,  for fear of being perceived as too religious or judgmental. If you are a believer, one surely knows that absolutely nothing  happens anywhere or at anytime that God is not aware of.   For  example  let’s look at   I Samuel 1.  Eli who was a priest had two sons  Hophni  & Phinehas  whose behaviors  were  simply outright outrageous.  They were disobedient, humiliated and slept with the women who came to  the Tabernacle for help.  The Bible says they were wicked, “corrupt sons who did not know the Lord.”  They were warned as to what would happen. They twisted their privileges in order to satisfy their flesh.  Eli did  not  discipline his sons properly.   When he tried to correct them they totally disrespected him.  They displayed  that  same disrespect towards God ….  They had established a pattern of sexual abuse that needed to be broken.  But look, on the other hand Hannah had dedicated her first born son Samuel to the Lord.  Samuel came up in the  very same household along with Eli’s sons.  Hannah had  brought him to Eli.  Samuel at a very young age ministered before the Lord and grew spiritually.  Despite what was going on about Samuel, the Lord intervened and he grew in “stature, and in favor both with the Lord and men.” (For more details of this narrative read  I Samuel 1-3) What a contrast.  

If you want to break a cycle of abuse, dysfunction  or  addiction, you have to do something differently than what you are already doing.  If   your “helping is not helping then you are not helping.”  Addiction needs to be replaced with a healthy productive activity.   It is important  that we help subsequent generations not to fall prey to these destructive behaviors.  DON’T continue to sweep things under the rug.  The enemy always tries to subvert and corrupt what God intends.  Absolutely nothing  gets by God!  Sexual sin is not a new problem. There is power in the blood of Jesus!  Let’s really begin to ask and seek the Lord’s direction “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways  acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.”    All of  God’s Word is true!Less seminars, workshops, programs and more practical application of God’s Word implemented within our daily lives.  All too often when issues arise God’s way for resolve is totally disregarded.  Less excuses  such as  “Nobody’s perfect.”  Yes, this is a truism; but God tells us to continue to strive for  His perfection!  Perfection according to Webster means:    1: the quality or state of being perfect: as a: freedom from fault or defect : flawlessness b: maturity c: the quality or state of being saintly 2 a: an exemplification of supreme excellence b: an unsurpassable degree of accuracy or excellence3: the act or process of perfecting.   God’s perfection brings wholeness.  God would not tell us to do something if it were not possible.  To be a Christian means to commit to live in the WAY that pleases God!

God really is able!   Marriage  and  the family were created by God from the very beginning. It was originally designed so that He would be the central theme of our existence. Since He created us He really does know what is best.  He gave us healthy boundaries so we could learn discipline.  So remember what He says in Jude: “But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.  They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are  the  men who will divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit…

God intended that your physical sexual needs were to be met within the confines of the “undefiled marriage bed.”  Otherwise it is like “fire outside of the fireplace.” God loves you so much that He allows you the freedom to choose.   It is evident that many choose to do “their own thing.”  But, are the consequences really worth it?   Think about it!  Everywhere you are He is, everything you do or have done, He knows! There is a very significant security available to you when you choose to make His will  and WAY  your primary concern!  Repentance is possible but first one must recognize that there is sin.  Sin is missing the mark. Take some time to get refocused.  A conscious that is sensitive to God is precious.  You can be set free from any addiction.  God has called us to live differently.  He has given us healthy boundaries  in order to properly satisfy any personal needs which can be experienced within the sanctity  of marriage.   He can fill that void. 

God always has a better way but too often the ways of the world have taken His place.  Healing and restoration are possible.  Take some time for a spiritual cleansing. Seeking Him through His Word one really  can find rest and peace for the wearied soul.   God  has left us a marvelous wealth of knowledge  and examples within His Word to help us to avoid the pitfalls and consequences of partaking in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh.  Read the writings of the Song of  Solomon  its  beauty and honesty shows a balanced contrast to the sexual perversions of this age.  Begin  being consistently accountable to someone for your actions and developing self control which is part of the Fruit of  His Spirit.  Someone who has healthy boundaries and knows the importance of not walking in the flesh but walking in the Spirit.  Prayer and fasting are valuable tools.   You can rededicate your life to sexual purity.  You really  can experience a growing healthy self esteem as a result of walking closer to the Lord. 

I realize that this subject will not win a popularity contest.  It may even cause a few jaws to drop. But at this point I have come to the conclusion that it is much more important “what Gods knows rather than what people think.”   Especially when you know that He knows there is “no secret agenda.”  My intentions are  to shed Light where the darkness continues to keep the people of God and those in the world trapped in its snare.   Christ lived a sinless life to overcome sin in the flesh for us! He died a painful death on the cross for us so we could live differently.  Too many are more concerned about protocol rather  than who to call.   Help Me Lift His Holy Name!  To God Be The Glory!