Re: Blocking Offensive Material(??) with Firewall

[Jason Olsen <jolsen () dpg devry edu>]

On Sun, 13 Jun 1999, Di Phelan wrote:

> It seems to me that there are two ways of content blocking - at the ISP
> level with application level filtering using proxy servers and at the
> BSP level with packet filtering using routers.

Checkpoint's FireWall-1 package has a 'hook' for 3rd-party software.  They
allow the insertion of anyi-virus software, as well as content filtering.
Basically, IIRC, you specify a package that has a list (updated daily) of
all the 'objectionable content' sites they're aware of.  If the Firewall
sees a request to one of these sites, or material returning from one of
them, it is dropped.  Bear in mind these things:

1)This is 3rd party software/information.  You have to subscribe to it.
2)There's always something new appearing on the net each day.  The list
may be updated daily, but how long does it take them to discover something
"new"?  A day?  A week?  A month?  There will always be lag time.  I also
lack information on HOW they discover these websites.
3)Blocking isn't a pure science.  They may add something to their
black-list because it has the word 'cervix' or the like, when it's a
legitimate site talking about uterine cancer.  Who knows how in depth they
investigate before adding it to their list.
4)As you mentioned... there's always ways around these things.

My .02.

-Jason

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*Jason Olsen                              *  email: jolsen () dpg devry edu  *
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