ICAlert

ICAlert is a product that blocks access to illegal child abuse and terror-related content and reports access attempts to the police.

It is developed by South West Grid for Learning, Plymouth University and the IWF. The software is developed by Plymouth University. The product is marketed by SWGfL, whose expected customers are UK schools.

Reputation management

The product is pitched as better than blocking, and good for reputation management.

ICAlert is a brand new managed device that monitors your schools internet access, targeting users attempting to access illegal content - child abuse images as well as terrorist content.
Ordinarily access to this type of content is simply filtered – whilst helpful this means that the user and their behaviour go unnoticed.
ICAlert changes this. Discovering such access, it activates an alert and provides valuable data, enabling a swift resolution, in the interests and protection of your school and children.

Technical functioning and dealing with access attempts

A “black box” with hashed URLs does the matching from within the school’s network. As the URLs are hashed, they cannot be accessed by school staff.

Police then refer access attempts to the “safeguarding” staff within the educational establishment.

Their FAQ states:

What happens when an alert is activated?

When someone on your network visits one of the URL's on our list, the ICAlert unit sends the service a notification noting the date and time, which list the triggering URL was in, and the ID of the ICAlert unit.

The notifications are received by the seconded specialist Police officers at SWGfL who will contact the nominated safeguarding person at your school to discuss the situation and identify a resolution plan.

Our Police officers have extensive and unique experience in managing these situations and will work with you until the situation is resolved.

The installation of the box itself requires low technical skill, according to the website, aiming to make it extremely simple for schools to use. The product includes a three year maintenance contract.

Maintenance of blocklists

The list of child abuse material is maintained by the IWF. The list of terrorist-related URLs is supplied from the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit. CTIRU which is also listed on the website as the place to report such content.

Transparency requirements

The project acknowledges that transparency is required to users and staff if this product is installed. They suggest altering any 'acceptable use policy' to include the line:

“The school / academy will monitor the use of ICT systems, devices and digital communications.”

Prevent

The usefulness of the product in relation to Prevent requirements are not mentioned.