New surge in spam--tops 90 percent of e-mail

Spam continues to be a global email problem...and it's only getting worse, not better. Last month the amount of spam that was send across the world increased by a whopping 35%, according to a report by Neowin.net.

How does spam find its way into emails boxes? Spammers often use several common tricks. Often it comes from visits to inappropriate websites that invisibly track visitors, collecting their IP and URL addresses or that entise visitors to register their email addresses, which then get sold off to mail spam emailers.

Today, despite recent anti-spam laws and efforts to prevent spam, it's estimated that globally more than 90% of e-mail sent daily is spam. This is causing serious trouble for regular users like you and me as well as e-mail providers as this reduces the usability and reliability of the service.

David Mayer, product manager Ironport systems said "From 31 billion spams a day on average in October 2005 to 63 billion in October 2006. But in November, we saw two surges that averaged 85 billion messages a day, one from Nov. 13 to 22, the other from Nov. 26 to 28."

This current rate of increase was beyond the expectations of internet analysts. Many are pointing out the new methodologies like the extensive use of images in the spam messages instead of text, surge in botnet (zombies) usage by spammers, the increased number of URLs that are available to spammers and under developed spam filters.

Most of the current generation spam filters are not efficient in managing messages that contains images.

The profit motive work that the spammers are doing has made spamming to a whole new "professional" level. They are always first in introducing innovative ways to penetrate into users in-boxes. The application of hacking technologies in the junk mail "industry" has increased manifold from last year. Thanks to new softwares, from fetching e-mail addresses to fooling spam filters everything can be accomplished with easy to use software.

In mid-November, IronPort witnessed a new, massive spam attack that dropped filter efficiency by more than 10 percentage, letting millions of messages through to in-boxes. "It's a reaction gap," says Mayer. "It takes time for vendors to respond and come up with appropriate rules, but with their distributed [botnet] networks, spammers can send a huge attack in a matter of hours. It takes time for anti-spam solutions to catch up with the attack."

As Mayer says "It's going to be a long battle."

Safekeeper is committed to battling spam, giving parents easy and effective software to prevent their teens from accessing spam-farming sites. Take a strong position battling against spam by using Safekeeper's award-winning PC protection software, which is updated 24/7 by its staff of anti-spam professionals and which automatically updates to protect your family computer.

Download a free 14-day trial of Safekeeper and see how quickly your computer works better for your family.

It's all-in-one computer protection. Block porn, gambling, drugs and millions of dangerous websites. Everything you need to keep your family safe online — and guard them from online predators.

Making Search Engines More Kid-Sensitive And Kid-Safe

Search engines make things findable online. Google. Yahoo. MSN Live. Ask. And dozens of smaller, more specialized search engines designed for niche web users.

However, search engines are not very kids-sensitive or kids-safe. Without effective Internet filtering, kids can easily be exposed to content they shouldn't see.

There are custom search engines designed just for kids:


Yahooligans
StudyBuddy
KidsClick
Ask for Kids
Kids Search Tools

Schools use strict search engine content filters to keep kids safe online, such as these:

Awesome Library
Diddabdoo
Education World
SearchEdu.com
TekMom's Search Tools for Students
ThinkQuest Library

At home, though, parents often don't place tough Internet filter restrictions on the home computer. If they do use filters at all, parents may just rely on their web browser settings. These filters are not enough.

Parents need to be aware most major search engines get their listings by crawling the web, rather than through human review and categorization. This means its easy for possibly objectionable material to appear in search results...even with browser restrictions.

Automated filtering can not keep out all the potentially-naughty results from an innocent search, and sometimes overenthusiastic filters would filter out things that were actually innocent. Hand-built directories of resources suitable for kids are possible (including those listed above).

But they still have their problems.

One search engine tool designed for 8-to-13-year-old kids has been recently red-flagged for its problems allowing inappropriate content to be seen by kids: Zoo.com (run by InfoSpace.com). SearchEngineWatch.com reports "this search engine has a serious issue that needs to be addressed."

No search engine is perfect on its own. That's why using effective filtering software on your computer is essential when your kids use the home computer.

Safekeeper combines web crawling algorithms with smart human review and categorization, which constantly updates and indexes web content 24/7. Safekeeper delivers effective filtering protection customized for your family's needs, to help keep your kids safe online.

6% of Internet searches include a sexually-explicit result

Kids are naturally curious. With the Internet, they can freely explore without restriction. Including adult content parents wouldn't want their kids to see.

So what are your kids searching and seeing online?

Without proper internet filtering protection, keeping kids safe online from inappropriate content is nearly impossible. Search engines deliver results depending on the search terms typed in by the user. Unless an internet filter is activated and locked for strict content filtering protection, the Internet is not naturally a kid-friendly zone.

Kid-specific sites -- such as AOL's "KOL", Nick.com, Disney, etc -- keep content safe within its own site. But what happens when your kids surf elsewhere on the web?

Google's SafeSearch tool and ratings filters controlled by the browser (such as used for Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Safari or Firefox) help but don't always do the job parents expect. Adult content still slips through search results because content is judged through code and algorhythms, not by people.

Last month, the U.S. Justice Department -- seeking to revive and strengthen the 1998 Child Online Protection Act to block content "harmful to minors" -- released a comprehensive study on the Internet, specifically addressing adult content. Both the Supreme Court and the American Civil Liberties Union, supports the importance and usage of internet filters.

Among the findings:

-- About 1 percent of Web sites indexed by Google and Microsoft are sexually explicit (the most recent estimate of the web's total amount of webpages is 11.5 billion. 11.5 billion times 1 percent equals 115 million estimated sexually explicit webpages)

-- About 6 percent of searches yield at least one explicit web site

-- The most popular search queries return a sexually explicit site nearly 40 percent of the time.

-- Half the sexually explicit web sites found in the Google and MSN indexes are foreign, making them beyond the reach of U.S. law.

Award-winning Safekeeper is a new KidsSafe Blocker software tool to give parents effective internet filtering protection. Safekeeper employs an active team to constantly update its custom Internet filtering restrictions as the Internet continues to grow and evolve. And, if you find a site you want blocked for all Safekeeper users, it is easy to submit a site for community blocking.

Safekeeper makes it easy to tailor the level of Internet restriction you need for your family and keep the Internet age-appropriate.

Safekeeper is software that works to protect your kids and computer

When you or your kids use the family computer, you want it work and you want to avoid problems. Using a computer shouldn't be a hassle. Software that helps your computer run better and more smoothly make PC usage so much better and less frustrating.

When you have kids who need to go online, keeping them safe from Internet threats while also protecting your PC becomes really important.

According to recent studies, one in seven teenagers has met, face-to-face, total strangers they first met online. 54% have communicated with a stranger online, and 47% have received pornographic e-mail.

Parental control software can help concerned parents protect their children online will also educating them about the risks.

Safekeeper is a new program that can give parents the confidence both their web-surfing kids and their computer can remain safe on the Internet. And it is already winning awards.

Last month, Safekeeper received the Financial Times' recommendation from tech guru Paul Taylor, noting "its impressive content filters, internet chat monitoring tool, and ability to track sexual predators".

With Safekeeper, your children can avoid inappropriate content and be able to access the tremendous resources of the internet in complete safety.

In October, Service Provider Weekly gave Safekeeper a 5-star Editor's Choice Award for protection and price recommendation, saying "It keeps kids safe from more than 30 million websites", providing "a high-level of Internet parental controls and virus protection."

Just last week, Safekeeper's internet content filter partner NetIntelligence received the 2006 BCS Information Management Award -- recognizing Safekeeper for excellence and innovation in the management of content information.

Within the field of global information technology, the BCS Information Management Award competition is fiecely contested and highly valued, which stating a new software technology is "very sound", "well-conceived" and "highly successful".

Safekeeper -- a powerful new PC protection tool for safer teen internet use

Safekeeper -- a new PC online protection application - is specially designed to keep your kids safe when on the Internet. And to keep your computer safe from online threats, too.

Among the recent news stories Safekeeper can help your family:

Safekeeper partner Family Watchdog. Before you move into a new neighborhood or buy a new home, knowing there are registered sex offenders in the area might influence your decision.

The Potential Dangers When Your Kids Use MySpace. MySpace.com makes it so easy to create virtual social communities online for teens to build friendship networks and to express their personalities. But Internet "relationships" are not the same as real-time relationships. allowing young people to make themselves vulnerable to dangers they would never face if supervised by a parent or responsible adult.

Online and In Danger? How to Protect Yourself in the Virtual World. Cyberspace can pose a real threat to your family. Twenty-five million American kids have been -- or are -- online...amd 71% of teens online have received personal messages from someone they don't know.


Safekeeper gives parents more control over their kid's online time. Many parents want to limit their children's time on the Internet -- especially for their tweens and teens. However, parents often don't know how to do it without yelling, nagging or asking over and over to them to turn off the computer. Safekeeper can help.

Why Safekeeper? So parents have effective digital tools to help keep their kids safe online. Safekeeper is an important new digital tool for parents helping them supervise their children and teens Internet usage and keeping them safe online.

Seven In 10 Tweens Surf Web At Home. Children between the ages of 8 and 11 are almost as likely to surf online as watch television. With Safekeeper, you can keep your kids safe when online.

Cyber Communities Are Huge With Teens; Safekeeper Monitors - And Blocks - Them. Teens are at risk online. Safekeeper helps parents become "digital parents" by putting parent-approved Internet rules, controls, monitors and blocking securely in effect.

Go to mySafekeeper.com today and download a free trial for your PC and make the Internet safer for your family.

Safekeeper partner Family Watchdog featured in Gawker, Conde Nast's Cookie Mag

Before you move into a new neighborhood or buy a new home, knowing there are registered sex offenders in the area might influence your decision.

Family Watchdog, one of Safekeeper's partners, provides the Predator Alert feature letting you know exactly when and where a registered sex offender listed with the Department of Justice has moved into your neighborhood. You receive an emailed report showing the address, the map location, the distance away from your address, even an up-to-date DOJ photo, description and details about the offender's crime.

You might be surprised and amazed to learn just who is living near you. Type in your address here and see right now for free.

Gawker just posted an article ("To Text A Predator") about Family Watchdog last night, where the author was startled to realize who was living nearby:

Cookie, Conde's newish mommy mag, brings word of a new cell-phone alert service...Family Watchdog also alerts you to the comings and goings of a certain class of people; in this case, sex offenders.

Let Family Watchdog tell you when an offender moves in or out of your area! Our notification service provides you with peace of mind. We will notify you by email as soon as we detect that a registered sex offender moves near you. It's simple and fast.
Sounds handy!

Download the free 14-day trial of Safekeeper today and know your neighborhood.

The Potential Dangers When Your Kids Use MySpace

MySpace.com makes it so easy to create virtual social communities online for teens and early twentysomethings to build friendship networks and to express their personalities.

This new digital media world allows teens to form "relationships" much on the Internet as they are in reality.

But Internet "relationships" are not the same as real-time relationships. They allow fantany to merge and confuse reality. They also can allow young people to make themselves vulnerable to dangers they would never face if supervised by a parent or responsible adult.

Dangers as serious as murder. The amount of violent crimes associated with MySpace in its short life history of less than 3 years is disturbing to parents and police officials alike.

The December issue of Wired writes about "Murder on MySpace":

With more than 120 million registered users on MySpace, odds dictate that some of them will die by violence. The ghoulish, encyclopedic Web site MyDeathSpace chronicles about 600 victims and more than 35 accused, convicted, or executed murderers with MySpace profiles.

As a parent, are you blocking MySpace access to your child? Do you know how to successfully block MySpace from your computer to protect your child? What about other social network community sites with their own tragic stories, such as Facebook or Xanga?

With Safekeeper, you can easily block these sites and prevent your teen's access to it on the family computer. Or, if you do approve access, you can monitor exactly what they do on it, receiving daily reports of all your teen's online activity.

Download the free 14-day trial of Safekeeper today and get peace of mind knowing you are being as strong a digital parent as you are a parent in real life.

Online and In Danger? How to Protect Yourself in the Virtual World

Cyberspace can pose a real threat to your family.

Twenty-five million American kids have been -- or are -- online. The number is staggering, but even more startling is that, according to recent data gathered by Safekeeper's partner The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 71% of teens online have received personal messages from someone they don't know, 45% have been asked for personal information from a stranger; and 34% have had unwanted or unsolicited exposure to inappropriate images.

Even more shocking to parents, 20% of kids have received a sexual solicitation over the Internet, 30% have considered meeting in person someone they met online, while 14% have actually done so. Approximately one million kids have received an aggressive sexual solicitation: someone asking to meet in person, calling on the telephone or sending snail mail, money or gifts.

Here's the problem: fewer than one in five kids who have experienced any of the above, have told a parent or guardian. When families don't talk about the threats, their kids may be at serious risk.

One tool to help keep families safe is Safekeeper -- a computer application which protects your family online as well as the family PC from cyberthreats. It's easy to set up and use, with a free 14-day trial download available here.

To help you discuss potential cyber threats, check out with your kids the new Nick special hosted by Linda Ellerbee this weekemd.

For 13 years on Viacom's Nickelodeon cable channel, Linda Ellerbee has smartly delivered topical news issues from the point of view of kids, specially tailored so kids can really understand.

By including kids in the story and the show studio, kids get to ask her the questions they want to know. Often, her programs create an opportunity for parents to talk about the subject more with their kids without embarrassment. Lasy year, she took on the issue of cyber-bullies.

This Sunday (December 10 at 8:30 EST), she takes on the subject of staying safe online and the threats of cyberspace to kids in a program called "Online and In Danger? How to Protect Yourself in the Virtual World."

Parents should watch this one with their kids. If you use email, you know how much unwanted spam and solicitation you recieve, including adult content. It's no different for your kids if they use email. Check out Ellerbee's new special this Sunday as she discusses with both experts on the Internet and kids the potential dangers and how to stay safe online.

Included on the show: Ernie Allen of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; Internet lawyer Parry Aftab; and Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer.

Safekeeper gives parents more control over their kid's online time

If you parent a teen, you've seen "the look". You try to get them to turn off the computer, the TV, the video games...you hear "In a minute". You say "Now!".

Then you get the look...the look of push back.

Many parents want to limit their children's time on the Internet -- especially for their tweens and teens. However, parents often don't know how to do it without yelling, nagging or asking over and over to them to turn off the computer.

Safekeeper can help.

In a new national study released yesterday by the University of Southern California, 21 percent of parents (1 in 5) believe their kids are online too long (a 90% increase since 2000). About 80 percent of the children say the Internet is important for schoolwork, three-quarters of the parents say grades have not gone up or down since they got Internet access.

Read that again.

More parents think their kids are online too long.

Most parents say the Internet is important...yet most also say the Internet has had no impact on grades.

Some might think if the Internet is not yielding positive results for grades, then that is a negative impact on grades.

Just think about the "extra/too much" time kids spend online daily instead of studying, reading or doing homework. YouTube. Emailing viral videos. Downloading music. Or worse -- adult content. None of which helps grades.

So, what's a parent to do?

Argue, yell, discipline, punish...whatever a parent can do.

The USC study did say that 47% of parents say they have withheld Internet use as a form of punishment. But what if that still doesn't fix the problem?

Safekeeper can help. Safekeeper can limit when and how much time your kids can be online. And working parents can even make usage approval changes from the office when special needs arise. Customizing usage approval for your kids is quick and simple.

Best of all, parents may find less yelling and screaming to get the kids off the computer.

Because, as a parent, you get to decide your kid's computer usage...by using Safekeeper's easy-to-use, award-winning online software, the computer user is logged off when time has elapsed.

Safekeeper gives parents more control of the children's online time and usage. Download a free 14-day trial now.