The systems which defend our children against electronic abuse need to be every bit as "safety critical" as those which run our nuclear power stations or manage our airspace. When those systems work well, we should thank the design and project management skills which went into their development; when they fail, we need to know why. This event explores what child protection systems actually do, how they are specified, developed, and monitored, and where - if necessary - improvements to products and/or processes need to be made.

THE MASTERCLASS: John Sluiter, CISSP (Senior Security Architect, Capgemini UK and Merlin Alliance) will start the ball rolling by giving the software industry perspective on child protection, explaining the general problem, and looking at the strengths and limitations of firewalls and filters, especially in this age of ever more sophisticated spyware. Jon Aston (Ingenuity (UK) Ltd) will then introduce the Cyber Predator Internet and Email Activity Monitoring product, and explain how the requirements for this state-of-the-art system were captured and are kept up to date. Finally, Rob Cullen (Trafod) will review the range of child protection risks and generally explore questions relating to the ability of both industry and the regulatory panels to manage with those risks. Funding concerns and problems of fundamental strategy and definition (e.g. do computer games deserve the same protections) will be raised as appropriate.

All are welcome - admission free but e-ticketed. Please submit ticket applications / proposed questions by e-mail to the Branch Secretary.