The OIT division is changing its web content filter from Websense to Palo Alto’s URL content filter.
Why do you filter?
It is important to note, that we at OIT do not choose the web sites to filter, however we choose categories to filter or allow. We have selected the filtered categories based on three main areas of concern.
- Security/Privacy Risks
- Legal Risks
- Productivity/Bandwidth Loss
Many of the blocked categories pose a security risk by either introducing malware into the corporate network or stealing private information or corporate intellectual property. Some websites look legitimate but try to steal your information. This is the majority of our focus in filtering sites. Some of the categories are business inappropriate and left unblocked could cause legal issues. Indeed, in our businesses that serve children, web content filtering is often a requirement. Finally, some sites are filtered to protect against productivity or bandwidth loss. Our connection the to Internet does have a speed limit and we are required to put safeguards in place to keep it available for business use. We have been increasing our available bandwidth over the years, so you may notice we have lessened the restrictions on bandwidth and productivity considerably.
Filtering Problems
As mentioned above; we only choose the categories of sites to be filtered and not the individual sites themselves. It is quite possible and highly likely that the categories will be wrong. You may be trying to get to a legitimate web site and find that the Palo Alto has filtered the site. We can fix this issue when it occurs and whitelist the web site. Just contact the help desk and we will be happy to investigate the issue. Please keep in mind that this is a corporate Internet connection, so requests to unblock sites with no business value or reason may not be honored.
*New Categories Updated 10/29/2017
Our Current Filtering Categories
| Category: | Websense (Old Filter): | Palo Alto (New Filter): |
| Abortion | Allow | Allow |
| Abused Drugs | Block | Block |
| Adult | Block | Block |
| Alcohol and Tobacco | Allow | Allow |
| Auctions | Allow | Allow |
| Business and Economy | Allow | Allow |
| *Command and Control | Block | Block |
| Computer and Internet Info | Allow | Allow |
| Content Delivery Networks | Allow | Allow |
| *Copyright Infringement | Block | Block |
| Dating | Allow | Allow |
| Dynamic DNS | Allow | Allow |
| Educational Institutions | Allow | Allow |
| Entertainment and Arts | Allow | Allow |
| *Extremism | Block | Block |
| Financial Services | Allow | Allow |
| Gambling | Block | Block |
| Games | Block | Block |
| Government | Allow | Allow |
| Hacking | Block | Block |
| Health and Medicine | Allow | Allow |
| Home and Garden | Allow | Allow |
| Hunting and Fishing | Allow | Allow |
| *Insufficient Content | Block | Block |
| *Internet Communications and Telephony | Block | Allow |
| Internet Portals | Allow | Allow |
| Job Search | Allow | Allow |
| Legal | Allow | Allow |
| Malware | Block | Block |
| Military | Allow | Allow |
| Motor Vehicles | Allow | Allow |
| Music | Block | Allow |
| News | Allow | Allow |
| *Not Resolved | Block | Allow |
| Nudity | Block | Block |
| Online Storage and Backup | Block | Allow |
| Parked | Block | Block |
| Peer-to-Peer | Block | Block |
| Personal Sites and Blogs | Block | Allow |
| Philosophy and Political Advocacy | Allow | Allow |
| Phishing | Block | Block |
| Private IP Addresses | Block | Block |
| Proxy Avoidance and Anonymizers | Block | Block |
| Questionable | Block | Block |
| Real Estate | Allow | Allow |
| Recreation and Hobbies | Allow | Allow |
| Reference and Research | Allow | Allow |
| Religion | Allow | Allow |
| Search Engines | Allow | Allow |
| Sex Education | Allow | Allow |
| Shareware and Freeware | Block | Block |
| Shopping | Allow | Allow |
| Social Networking | Block | Allow |
| Society | Allow | Allow |
| Sports | Allow | Allow |
| Stock Advice and Tools | Allow | Allow |
| Streaming Media | Block | Allow** |
| Swimsuits and Intimate Apparel | Allow | Allow |
| Training and Tools | Allow | Allow |
| Translation | Allow | Allow |
| Travel | Allow | Allow |
| *Unknown | Block | Block |
| Weapons | Block | Block |
| Web Advertisements | Block | Block |
| Web-based Email | Block | Block |
| Web Hosting | Allow | Allow |
**Heavily utilized bandwidth sites like iHeartRadio, Pandora, Netflix and Spotify are excluded.
