Website Protection Service
Summary
The Information Security Office has partnered with a third party SaaS vendor to examine all (DNS) website requests made by any IWU owned device and queries made by any non-IWU device making requests from inside the IWU firewall infrastructure. For systems behind the IWU firewall infrastructure this would include all wired and wireless connections to the network including student and employee devices as well as IOT and SCADA equipment. Protection agents have been deployed to all IWU owned devices to ensure that, if utilized offsite, (outside of the IWU network) they are still receiving the same level of protection.
Allow and Block List for the policies configured can be found HERE:
How the (DNS) Filtering Works
User Experience When A Page Is Blocked
When a user makes a DNS [web] request it is quickly reviewed by the service. If the request violates the current filtering policy a block page is displayed in the user's browser as shown below. (figure 1)
If the user believes that the website they are requesting is valid and would like additional review given to it by the Information Security Team, they can fill out a request form (figure 2) via a link on the block page. (Appearing as 'click here' in figure 1)
In the request form it is important to fill out all fields especially the 'Message' box. In this area please include why you believe this site should be unblocked. If all fields are not filled out we will need to label the request as incomplete and will not investigate.
FIGURE 1.
FIGURE 2.
Current Filtering Policy
Several categories of web sites are currently being blocked by the service. These categories deal with sites that violate the current IWU Technology Acceptable Use Policy. In addition, sites that fall into the categories as illustrated below are also being blocked.
