NetSTAR

NTT Plala Inc.

NTT Plala Inc. provides as standard for B-Flets users the Net Barrier Basic security service consisting of a URL filter, packet filter, and Winny filter. In order to strengthen this service, the company has started using NetSTAR's URL databases. By blocking access to one-click fraud sites, an environment in which the Internet can be used with peace of mind has been achieved. This has importantly contributed to a rise in customer satisfaction.

NTT Plala Inc. (hereafter referred to as "NTT Plala") is a major ISP with over 2,300,000 users. The company focuses on enriching its broadband services, which include the provision of a high-quality video distribution services to be enjoyed on TVs. The Net Barrier Basic security service for B-Flets users, which the company started offering in 2005, is one part of this, it contributes to the creation of an environment in which family users, which constitute the company's main customer category, can use the Internet with peace of mind. Because this service is based on a system under which processing is done at the gateway of NTT Plala, it offers high reliability and performance as a matter of course, and eliminates the need for complicated actions such as installation, so that regarding harmful site access restrictions for minors, one does not have to worry that filtering software will be uninstalled without authorization. Further, since settings can be done easily with on/off switching, a larger number of user merits are provided compared to similar services offered by other ISPs. "Filtering services can be of the proxy type, client type, etc., but only NTT Plala offers a network-side filtering service," says Norifumi Yasue, Service Planning Department Manager. NTT Plala introduced filtering as a standard service ahead of other companies, but it still faces a rapid increase in new online crime such as one-click fraud. Thus new countermeasures for protecting general users who have little knowledge of networks and scant experience, such as beginners and the elderly, from crime are needed. "As the Internet becomes increasingly common, people with little experience and knowledge of the Internet, such as children and the elderly, are using connection services. As suppliers of connection services, we consider it necessary to provide services for protecting such people from online crime," says Yasue. Faced with this requirement, NTT Plala focused on online crime site blocking using a URL filter. As early as 2005, NTT Plala began offering harmful site access blocking services for minors based on the URL database supplied by public interest groups. Based on its experience, the company judged URL filtering to be effective for online crime sites. However, in the case of online crime sites, which appear and disappear in short cycles, high-quality URL databases are indispensable, so the company was looking for a new database supplier. After comparing the URL databases of a number of companies, NTT Plala ended up selecting NetSTAR for the quality and update frequency of its database, cost performance, and other factors. "We did a total comparison of the cost performance, accuracy, etc., of database. We gave high marks to NetSTAR on account of its strength in Japanese sites and the fact that database is compiled based on visual checks," says Yasue. With regard to introductory work, it took NTT Plala approximately a half year before the successfully launch of its service, including adjustments to harmonize the format of NetSTAR's URL database with its own format. As its Net Barrier Basic platform, NTT Plala uses the band control devices it operates in house, blocking about 2 million harmful sites each day. The same system is also used for filtering using NetSTAR's URL database, blocking between 35,000 and 50,000 one-click fraud sites each day without a drop in performance. The introduction of this filtering was not without challenges, as explained by Katsumi Nagata, Engineering Development Department Manager and Director: "Users being demanding in terms of speed, it is not acceptable to have a drop in access performance due to filter introduction. On the other hand, as control must be done to match the service entry of each user, instead of being fixed, we faced a number of rather difficult challenges." Further, according to NTT Plala, the company's URL filter users account for as much as 50% of service target users, "which compared to user percentages as revealed by the result of various surveys, is significantly higher. We take this to indicate a very high customer satisfaction level," says Nagata, expressing his confidence in the business effectiveness of filter services, the functions of which have been strengthened with NetSTAR's URL databases.

"Our ideal is the realization of a safe usage environment without customers noticing," says Yasue. "We want to answer the needs of our customers with an intelligent network not limited to URL filters," says Nagata.

In order to maintain and improve filtering accuracy, NetSTAR employs a dedicated mobile phone site URL collection team. At its URL Research Center, full-time researchers classify URLs year round. Along with information sharing with the High-Tech Crime Fighting General Center of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, the Nippon Information Communication Association, and other organizations, high filtering accuracy is realized by updating the database day by day, moment by moment.

Established in 1995. As of the end of 2007, its ISP services were subscribed to by 2.33 million customers. In addition to Internet connection and various security services, the company provides IP telephony services and broadband video distribution services via its in-house system infrastructure. NTT Plala leads the industry by deploying services that anticipate customer needs as it aims to evolve from an ISP to a BSP (broadband service provider).

* Service names, the sections of the persons herein mentioned, their titles and other information are current as of the time of information gathering, and may have changed since.