Disclaimer: I work for a content filtering company.
On 2/28/99 John Adams wrote:
>I don't see what good any of this content filtering does, because it's so
>easy to open an encrypted SSL connection to a proxy server and then access
>the web from there; and if you block SSL then noone can do commerce, and
>if that doesn't work, most of the proxy servers that exist for public use
>out there also anonomize on alternate ports.
Most engineers and IT personnel I know have better things to do with their
time.
Most other personnel wouldn't know where to begin. The best tech personnel
will always find a way around a wall. It's genetic.
>Content filtering (AFAIK) is a technological solution to a human problem,
>and people rely on it instead of educating their children / employees.
>> The best solutions available today are a combination of content
filtering
>> on the content of the pages themselves (there are several applications
out
>> there, including ours), coupled with a clear corporate policy on
>> appropriate use of network resources.
>
>How about just a clear corporate policy? Give your users some credit, and
>if that doesn't work, fire them.
>
How exactly does a company implement that policy? Random sweeps by
managers?
How do you know that an employee 'caught in the act' didn't stumble onto a
site
as you describe below? How do you insure that the policy is enforced
consistently
and fairly?
>Monitoring is probably better than blocking, in this case, but look at
>what happens on search engines when you mistype a word, you're innudated
>with porn. Porn and Gambling sites are, IMHO, the default search result on
>the internet these days, and those who inadvertendly bring them up
>shouldn't by chastized.
>
>-john
Agreed. The policy should be reasonable, the implementation should be fair.
If you've got a lot of users, you may need tools to enforce the policy.
Logfiles are OK if you have the time to sort through and analyze them.
There are a bunch of tools to save you time in identifying suspect sites
and suspect users. The better ones use context sensitive content filtering
instead of simple string matching, so you don't embarass innocent users
doing
their jobs. That's all. If you want to go through logfiles. Go for it.
Regards,
Duncan
Elron Software
(disclaimer: a content filtering company)
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