Forcepoint
| File:Websense logo.jpg | |
| Company type | Internet Censorship |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | San Diego, California |
| Website | http://www.websense.com |
Websense is a San Diego based company which produces Internet content-control software of the same name. The company's slogan is "Securing Productivity". While it is aimed at businesses and other large entities (such as governments, for their employees), it also sees use in libraries and schools. It has come under criticism from civil liberties groups on grounds that it restricts the free flow of speech [1].
Security
While Websense is very popular and generally considered one of the best ways to regulate activity on large networks, such as schools and businesses, there are different methods of getting around their services. By searching from google and looking for "bypass Websense" will bring up hundreds of results, mostly about proxy servers. While these proxy servers may sometimes allow a bypass of Websense, most of these sites get blocked by Websense before a user can attempt to use them. In fact, pages that have information about bypassing Websense are often blocked. Another method of getting around Websense is to use AOL, Compuserve, or similar programs. They use their own server, so Websense can't touch it. Fortunately for most schools and businesses, their networks do not allow users to download or install programs. Despite these minor setbacks to the security provided by Websense, it is one of the strongest and most secure filters in its genre.
Proxy servers
 | This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. |
With a proxy, Websense sees you browse to the web proxy -- not to the web site you are actually browsing to. You browse to the web proxy, and then the web proxy browses to the web site you want to visit. The reason that these web proxies are able to bypass Websense is the the 'S' in the HTTP address [(https://)] stands for secure connection and Websense does not block such secured connections. This is probably the simplest way to get around the Websense program as it takes little time and no one will wonder what you are up to. There are some free firewall bypassing softwares also available for e.g. HTTP-Tunnel, JAP etc.
Websense categories
Websense is designed to allow system administrators to block access to web sites (and other protocols) based on categories. These categories contain lists of sites that can be blocked. The following is a list of these categories. [2]
- Abortion
- Adult Material (including sex education[3], including government/charity-sponsored websites for teenagers)
- Advertisements
- Advocacy Groups
- "Alternative Journals"
- Business and Economy
- Drugs
- Education
- Entertainment (including "humor")
- Freeware and Software Download
- Gambling
- Games
- Government
- Health
- Illegal or Questionable (sites promoting illegal activity)
- Information Technology
- Instant Messaging
- Internet Communication
- Internet Radio and TV
- Internet Telephony
- Job Search
- Message Boards and Clubs
- Militancy and Extremist
- Miscellaneous
- News and Media
- Online Brokerage and Trading
- Pay-to-Surf
- Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
- Personal Network Storage and Backup
- Personals and Dating
- Proxy Avoidance
- Racism and Hate
- Religion
- Shopping
- Social Organisations
- Society and Lifestyles
- Sports
- Streaming Media
- Tasteless (What Wikipedia is qualified as is The Best Page In The Universe)
- Travel
- User-Defined (allowing network administrators to customize the filter)
- Uncategorized
- Vehicles
- Violence
- Weapons
- Web Based Email (such as Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and even company run web-based Microsoft Outlook portals).
More categories can be filtered for an extra fee including:
- Keyloggers
- Malicious Websites
- Phishing and Other Frauds
- Potentially Unwanted Software (defined as "Sites that use technologies that alter the operation of the user's hardware, software, or network in ways that diminish control over the user experience, privacy, or the collection and distribution of personal information."
- Spyware
Criticism
Some groups claim that the program is censoring free speech. Websense was the subject of an essay on the popular satirical site, The Best Page in the Universe after the site was added to the websense blacklist [4]. There are other organisations which have criticised the software [5].
See also
- Websense is often considered to provide tools for Internet censorship. Websense allows administrators to electively block access to certain sites. In most of the world, a private company is entitled to set whatever policies it wishes on its IT infrastructure and hence this would not be considered censorship as traditionally defined.
External links
- Official homepage
- Critical webpage Peacefire.org has not tested WebSENSE since November 2001 according to this page so their criticisms may be outdated.
- Bypassing Websense An article showing techniques on how to get around the websense filter
- Filtered by Websense as part of the category "Proxy Avoidance"