14 DAY TRIAL // You install it and we'll hack it! That's what computer geeks seem to think about all the security measures installed lately. I was not amazed when I read that an anti-pornography filter had been hacked. But I was a bit astonished when I found out that it has been done by a 16-year-old. Of course, this filter was intended for people younger than 18, and the fact that this boy could hack it, is quite concerning. I just don't get it - don't they test these things?
The program is worth $84 million Australian dollars, and of course it has been bought by the Australian government, as I've seen on The Register. So, this teenager says that "if they paid that much for it, it's gotta worth something!"; still, he proved to himself that he was wrong, because - as I've seen on the site mentioned above - he rendered it useless in less than 30 minutes (wow!).
How do they build these things? Did they make a program that prompts you every five minutes saying "Please don't download any porn!"? I am not sure how this one works, but if it has a database of sites and keywords, then it's definitely easy to hack! What I would do is embed all porn with a certain mark and just make a program that detects those marks. Sure, that will be hard work, and it could still be cracked, like any program, but I don't think it could be done so easily.
In any case, if you want to download the filter, you can get it from here for free, but I don't know how much good it will do you, since it has already been so easily hacked. And to be honest with you, I think that such a filter will only make it harder for teenagers to get porn, but it will never stop them, if they really want to get it.