It seems that MySpace is taking seriously the scourge that are sexual predators taking advantage of online forums and chat spaces to lure under age children into harm. This is a welcome change and I for one certainly applaud the fact that MySpace is going to help build a national database of sex offenders. There is no downside to such an initiative. That brings us, as security professionals, to another fact of life. Sex offenders, pedophiles, and others of their ilk are becoming increasingly Internet savvy. This should be countered with extra vigilance by system administrators and computer network security analysts. That can be done in a variety of ways ie: check for NTFS alternate data streams on corporate computers, verify corporate laptops periodically for adherence to corporate usage guidelines, and other such moves will help counter efforts by employees who are not what they might seem. Corporate security and system administrators need to be proactive in this fight against sexual miscreants. A companies publicly traded stock can be adversely affected by the discovery of pedophiles and the possibility that child pornography was stored on company IT assets. One never wants to think that this type of crime happens, but it is sadly a reality.
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