Navigating the internet can be a risky business. It is impossible to calculate the number of harmful or potentially risky websites that are used to distribute malware. Once a user clicks on a malicious link, a gateway is opened for this harmful code to access your network. This, inevitably, leads to malware attacks, ransomware attacks, data breaches, and more. The list, unfortunately, goes on.
Web content filtering prevents your network from harm by dynamically and strategically filtering out suspicious sites and web pages. The solutions can also block individual content, thereby users safe during their session. Content filters block material outright or analyze the content and provide a warning notification, asking the user if they wish to continue. Some web content filtering tools also offer sandboxing to download a potentially risky file in an isolated space.
In addition to keeping your users secure as they traverse the web, web content filtering is critical in maintaining your brand image and credibility. A user’s after work hours web searches are their own business, you certainly don’t want it happening on company time. Web content filtering is important in ensuring that (not safe for work) NSFW websites, such as gambling, pornography, firearm sites, aren’t accessible from your company devices and network.
For more on web content filtering and how it works, read our blog on the topic here:
From the popular Californian-based Barracuda is Barracuda Web Security Gateway, a highly robust web security platform with web content filtering capabilities. The solution allows for safe internet browsing and navigation of online applications. The platform ensures that users are not exposed to web-borne malware and viruses, misused bandwidth, and lost productivity. The platform has extensive granular policies and capabilities. It has the ability to control access to web sites, pages, applications, and web 2.0 platforms based on users, groups, bandwidth, and time of access. In addition to providing strong spyware, malware, and virus protection, the platform also offers social-network regulation, remote filtering for your remote users, and visibility into SSL-encrypted traffic. This SSL-filtering and inspection into all traffic can help admins enforce policies on social media sites and search platforms that would otherwise escape content policies.
Barracuda’s web security solution offers extensive and fast protection against a range of web-borne threats through leveraging intelligence and blocklists from thousands of Barracuda data points across the world. This continuous feed of threat intelligence helps to immediately block known (and unknown) spyware downloads, viruses, and access requests to malicious sites.
Admins are granted extensive network visibility, with a centralized and clean dashboard that delivers integrated reporting. This ensures that any network threats are identified and can inform targeted policies and provide proactive alerts in response to threats. The platform can also be used in conjunction with the Barracuda Reporting Server, which enables unified reporting for the web security platform. It generates accurate and customizable reports for further analysis, records, or auditing.
Powerful yet manageable and accessible, we would recommend the Barracuda Web Security Gateway for SMBs.
Cisco is a market leader in the range and technical ability of their products. Their web content filtering solution is Cisco Umbrella, a cloud-native web security and SASE solution. It offers extensive web and network security, including strong web content filtering capabilities. It’s an intuitive and intelligent platform that allows admins to apply consistent internal policies and enforce appropriate web use whilst on your company network and devices. Cisco Umbrella allows for easy and straightforward web access management through category-based web content filtering, “Allow” and “Block” lists, and SafeSearch browsing enforcement.
Cisco Umbrella’s web content filtering tool possesses over 80 content categories which cover millions of domains and billions of singular web pages. Admins are granted highly granular control, with the ability to set either high, moderate, or low risk settings. They can create custom content lists as needed and link enforce this on user or group level. There are occasions when certain users will need to access websites for work-related reasons that are currently on blocklists. Cisco Umbrella enables a block bypass feature which allows privileged individuals to access specific web-filtered categories. These categories include social networking pages or individual domains.
Cisco Umbrella is a highly flexible, intuitive platform that allows for location-sensitive enforcement. This allows users to be assigned policies with varying internet restrictions and login settings depending on where they are, and if they are on the company network. Any user visiting a blocked web page or site will be redirected to a customizable block page that provides reasoning for the denial of access.
We would recommend Cisco Umbrella for large organizations looking to implement a wider, cohesive security package that covers more multiple security threats.
Mimecast is a London-based cybersecurity company with a US outpost in Lexington, Massachusetts. The Mimecast Web Security platform is a cloud-native, integrated security solution, that offers extensive web security capabilities. The solution leverages a powerful, dynamic proxy which can help to inspect content and file downloads. The filtering solution can also provide anti-virus, URL categorization, static file analysis, and SSL inspection that helps to prevent your organization from harm. Through these tools, the solution is able to reinforce acceptable and appropriate use of the internet for your users.
Overall, the platform is highly effective in blocking web threats that can deliver malware or instigate phishing attacks. The solution also blocks web content sent through a phishing attack, thereby adding an extra layer of defense your email security setup. Mimecast Web Security can also reduce the need for shadow IT by monitoring and blocking the unauthorized and uncontrolled use of cloud applications. With the rise of home working and “bring your own device” (BYOD) policies, it can be difficult to effectively and consistently apply web content filtering policies. Mimecast Web Security enables the admin to apply these controls to all devices on and off the network, protecting all your remote and mobile workers.
The platform is managed from a centralized and clean console that delivers heightened visibility and extensive reporting capabilities. It shows simplified visualizations of key metrics such as accessed domains, blocked domains, and site categories.
It is an accessible solution that enables far reaching protection to all points in the network and allows for flexible, granular controls. We would recommend Mimecast Web Security for SMBs and enterprises.
Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Proofpoint is a leading provider in the cybersecurity industry across a number of categories. Their contribution to web content filtering is the Proofpoint Web Security platform – an integrated solution that provides a range of web security tools, including advanced threat protection, and data loss prevention. The platform is highly adept and efficient in reducing web-borne threats. It is a cloud-based platform with a globally distributed proxy. The solution can be easily integrated with Meta ZTNA, Windows, and Mac OS, SIEM, user provisioning with IdP, and SSO authentication tools in your security stack.
The platform aims to protect users from web-borne threats through a combination of advanced threat protection, data loss prevention, and dynamic access controls. Admins are granted extensive and granular access control. The solution can perform domain, URL, IP, and category-based filtering for malicious or risky content and potential threats. Users will either be redirected to a customizable block page.
Web content filtering is further supported through web isolation which allows users to navigate certain pages they need for their work – in-line SaaS discovery and application control is also a feature. Proofpoint Web Security also leverages signature-based detection for immediate identification of known threats and a real-time sandbox to ensure users don’t unwittingly download harmful files. Despite providing a robust level of security, the solution is still adaptive and intelligent and offers admin teams remote management so the solution can easily scale as your company grows.
We would recommend Proofpoint Web Security for organizations of all industries and sizes – particularly organizations that use Proofpoint for other areas of their security stack as the product integrates best with our Proofpoint tools.
Founded in 1991 and headquartered in San Jose, California, SonicWall bring us SonicWall Content Filtering Service (CFS). SonicWall CFS is an appliance-based gateway security and content filtering solution that combines real-time antivirus capabilities, intrusion prevention features, and anti-spyware. It offers world-class prevention from threats while not impeding your employees’ productivity. SonicWall’s CFS leverages a large cloud database that covers millions of URLs, IP addresses, and websites that have been identified as harmful or risky. Admins have extensive granular controls, with the ability to apply block and access policies for certain sites based on over 50 predefined categories that include individual users, user groups, job and role.
Reporting and insight into user activity is extensive, with admins able to analyze user activity and websites history through the SonicWall Capture Security Center. This center also allows real-time admin access to web activity and client reporting data. Content filtering categories are extensive – ranging from offensive, to multimedia, freeware, and software downloads. Harmful, risky, or unwanted sites can be blocked quickly and easily through the platform’s effective web caching and rating tools. This tool sits behind the firewall, and can scan, categorize, and block webpages in real-time.
SonicWall CFS has been commended for its ease of use when onboarding, and its overall stability and robustness as a product that is manageable at a small scale. The company is also praised for its strong levels of customer support, and the App Control interface. As such, we would recommend it for small to medium sized businesses.
Symantec, acquired by Broadcom in 2019, are cybersecurity specialists with a strong track record. Their WebFilter product is part of the Symantec Cloud Secure Web Gateway, which contains a number of powerful web content tools to protect your network. It is a consolidated, cloud-native tool, that also includes a cloud-hosted proxy, sandboxing capabilities, data loss prevention, web isolation, and email security gateway. Their WebFilter product offers next generation web filtering capabilities, with URL filtering and anti-malware technology in one integrated solution.
Their web filtering tool leverages the Symantec Global Intelligence Network – a global intelligence feed that can identify and log known malware, detect hidden malware, provide reputation and web content analysis. This is achieved through collating information from over 15,000 sources, and eight global control centers. Participation within this web gateway community can be optional, thanks to “On”, “Off”, or “Passive” settings.
The WebFilter tool is highly efficient in blocking malware, web threats, malicious software updates, phishing attempts, botnets, and other attacks. Configuring block policies is intuitive, with admins able to block only web threats using DNS filtering. This allows users access to popular websites and the things they need to work, without harming productivity. The cloud-based nature of Symantec’s WebFilter removes the requirement for constant updates and patching, as all of that is automatically taken care of.
Powerful, robust, but at times difficult to manage and configure, we would recommend Symantec’s WebFilter and Symantec Cloud Secure Web Gateway for large organizations with the technical resource to manage it properly.
From TitanHQ is the consolidated web security platform, WebTitan. It is a DNS security solution that offers extensive protection from cybersecurity threats and offers advanced DNS filtering controls. Intuitive and intelligent, WebTitan uses AI and machine learning to detect and block malicious, or risky, content in real-time. It is API driven, with remote management and monitoring delivered through API. The platform offers real-time updates and leverages a worldwide threat intel database, with newly identified threats immediately sent to this database. From here, comprehensive logs are recorded to protect against zero-day and zero-hour threats. Reporting for the solution is also extensive, with interactive reports and data visualization provided through the solution’s dashboard. Reporting can be delivered on user behavior, block lists, trends, and overall security health.
In addition to quickly blocking threats through granular controls and customizable block lists, the solution is adept at delivering phishing prevention through AI-powered protection. This protects against known and emerging phishing URLs and can help to protect against BEC and email account compromise. The solution uses DNSSEC (Domain name system security extensions) which helps to strengthen authentication through digital signatures and public key cryptography.
Data offload capabilities are provided, with admins able to compile and export DNS history lists in a variety of file formats. The solution has been noted for its ease of use and onboarding, with a clean and intuitive interface and consolidated dashboard. Support has also been commended for being responsive and effective.
Overall, WebTitan is a powerful and complete solution – it can handle any volume of usage with no latency, making it a strong recommendation for enterprises and MSPs.
How Do Web Content Filtering Solutions Work?
So, how do web content filtering solutions actually work?
Web content filtering solutions are filtering-based tools that screen and block a user’s access to anything that may be deemed unsafe, inappropriate, or unproductive while they’re at work or school. Companies can deploy a web content filter to make sure that employees don’t visit any malicious websites, access adult or other inappropriate content, or spend time on sites that can hinder productivity such as forums and social media sites.
In practice, web content filters can be hardware and software and are more commonly seen as a feature incorporated into a firewall solution. It works by screening and identifying websites for particular content (either the entire site or content on a singular page) that could violate any policies that have been previously configured. The tool will look for content patterns, which can include objects within images, text strings, or even parts of the website that might contain harmful code. It can also filter by keywords and specific content, which can be configured by admins setting policies and rules depending on company values and policies (such as a company not wishing for users to visit fire-arm or heavily political sites while at work). Web content filtering solutions can also leverage databases containing harmful or undesirable websites in order to block content that hasn’t been previously indexed by admins.
When a user tries to visit a website or specific page that the tool does not like, the webpage in question can either be partially blocked or screened out or the entire website can be outright blocked. Screening means that the content can be screened, with the user being able to choose whether they want to view the content after being given a warning.
