Proactive content filtering and Access Control

Figure 2 - Site Rating process flow

GFI WebMonitor can check for adult content in the URLs which users want to access. This is achieved by querying Yahoo! SafeSearchTM which is an online database that classifies and categorizes various sites on the Internet. When a user requests access to a site, GFI WebMonitor will query the Yahoo! SafeSearchTM database for the Content-Type held by that target URL. If the online web filter classifies the site as having adult content, GFI WebMonitor will add the target URL to the 'Adult' Destination Set on the ISA Server. If the ISA Server is configured to block access to the sites listed in the 'Adult' Destination/URL Set the user will be denied access to that site.

The benefits of a web-based content filter

It is estimated that three to five million websites are newly established or renamed each week. This means that administrators strive to maintain their local content filter databases updated. Missing one update might jeopardize the accuracy of a content filtering system.

GFI WebMonitor performs content filtering through a web-based filter and does not require a locally maintained filter database. All the required filter data is stored on the remote online database which is constantly maintained and updated by third-party content classification professionals. The benefits of using a web-based content filter include:

Automatically updated and maintained URL block list.
No local updates required - This reduces administrative loads by eliminating bothersome list updating procedures and research.
Adult sites are notoriously known for being accompanied by unwanted spyware/Trojan installations. Through an automatically managed adult site list you reduce the chances of your users opening holes in your network through the installation of unwanted software and ActiveX controls which frequently accompany visited adult sites.
Less bandwidth is consumed on non-work related browsing.
Less demand for local storage space - Less physical storage space is required locally to host a detailed and up-to-date content filter database which is continuously increasing in size. GFI WebMonitor will store only the blocked URLs which were requested by the company's internal users; as opposed to the Yahoo! SafeSearchTM filter database which includes the URLs of all sites that were accessed by a multitude of users around the world.