Why url filtering

Instead, URL filtering is best implemented as one of several security features designed to protect against threats on the web. For example, phishing sites may be detectable through an IPS or a sandbox, but the lack of communication between your sandbox, IPS, and URL filtering systems may offer you incomplete protection. Are you interested in employing URL filtering in your organization? Contact Check Point Software today for a free consultation! Learn more on how to stay protected from the latest Ransomware Pandemic.

What is URL Filtering? There are several key benefits of URL filtering, including: Minimizing security risks. Improving compliance. You can also avoid liabilities and remain compliant. Depending on your industry, you may have to adhere to stricter standards for cybersecurity and operations.

Improving productivity. A common example is an employee wanting to use LinkedIn for new business and sales prospecting, but the site is blocked to prevent staff from searching and applying for jobs while at work. Overblocking restricts employee productivity and frustrates staff by preventing them from using the resources they need to work effectively. DNS filtering is a similar technique but is different in specific ways. It blocks entire domains, which includes all URLs listed within a domain, whereas URL filtering only blocks specific webpages.

URL filtering is a more granular process that enables organizations to block individual pages within a website. This means that implementing URL filtering requires more customization and maintenance from an IT team. A good example of this in practice is a financial service that wants to allow employees to access a multifunction news website that covers financial news and sports or sports betting news. DNS filtering would block the entire domain, preventing employees from reading both the financial and sports pages of the site.

In contrast, URL filtering allows the organization to enable access to the financial pages but block the sports news content. Cyberattacks commonly encourage targeted users to visit malicious websites that either steal their personal information or download malware onto their device. Some of these attacks use fake websites that imitate a trusted, frequently used site to motivate users to enter their login credentials.

URL filtering can block access to websites that have been flagged as dangerous and thwart the potential of malware and phishing attacks. This is crucial to preventing security risks as applications move to the cloud and organizations increase their attack surfaces. The Fortinet SWG solution includes application control, deep traffic inspection, data loss prevention, remote browser isolation, and URL filtering.

It provides one unified product that protects organizations from web attacks and enforces internet policy compliance through URL filtering, advanced threat defense, and malware protection.

Moreover, the Fortinet FortiProxy allows organizations to secure and optimize their networks against attacks that are increasingly becoming more sophisticated and versatile. Skip to content Skip to navigation Skip to footer. What is URL Filtering? Contact Us. These typically include: Blocked sites: These are likely social media pages, shopping websites, unnecessary news outlets, or known malware-hosting sites. Allowed sites: Websites relevant to the organization and required by its workflow, such as Software-as-a-Service SaaS programs, are usually included in an organization's list of allowed sites.

Defined IT policies: IT teams can create policies that log site users who visit certain websites at particular times. For example, a payroll website could be restricted to certain people that need access to it in the days leading up to payday.

Configure the following options. Option Description Name Specifies the name of the rule. The safe search function only can be used in the following search engines currently: Google, Bing, Yahoo! In the URL Category part, configure the following options. The options are: New: Creates new keyword categories.

For more information about keyword category, see Keyword Category. Keyword category: Shows the name of the configured keyword categories. Block: Selects the check box to block access to the website whose URL contains the specified keywords. Log: Selects the check box to log the access to the website whose URL contains the specified keywords. Block Selects the check box to block access to the corresponding URL category.

Log Selects the check box to log access to the corresponding URL category. For HTTPS traffic, system can acquire the domain name of the site which you want to access from the SSL negotiation packets after this feature is configured. Then, system will perform URL filtering in accordance with the domain name. Option Description New Creates new keyword categories. Keyword category Shows the name of the configured keyword categories.

Block Selects the check box to block access to the website whose URL contains the specified keywords. Log Selects the check box to log the access to the website whose URL contains the specified keywords. Only after canceling the binding can you delete the URL filtering rule.

The predefined URL database is controlled by a license. Configure the display information in the blocking warning page. Option Description Default Use the default blocking warning page as shown above. After selecting the Default radio button: If the user-defined warning page is not configured, the predefined warning page will be used. If the user-defined warning page is configured and enabled, the user-defined warning page will be used.

Redirect page Redirect to the specified URL. You can click Detection to verify whether the URL is valid. Specifies the name of the rule. Many search engines, such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!

Specifies the safe search action. Creates a new URL category. Selects the check box to block access to the corresponding URL category.