Security Appliance: Dynamic Filtering
The usefulness and far-reaching impact of the internet cannot be ignored. And while there are other filtering services attempting to make the internet a safer place, few come close to meeting the high standards the Churches and members of the Plain Community require.
Security Appliance began with the idea that no one understands the values and needs of the Plain Community like members of the Plain Community.
Who will benefit from using Security Appliance?
Businesses
Helping Businesses Provide Safe and Productive Working Environments for Their Employees.
Not only can businesses safeguard their employees from immoral websites, but they can increase productivity by blocking categories like Social Media, News, Sports, and other non-business related content.
Churches
Helping Churches Protect Their Members and Provide Accountability.
Some Plain Communities have provided specific criteria for all their members to meet. And Security Appliance makes it easy to set and monitor those boundaries on an individual member level.
How does "dynamic filtering" work?
Security Appliance is smart enough to know when to simply hide questionable content on a page - while still making important functions usable (called "pruning") - and smart enough to know when it is appropriate to block objectionable categories completely. This is the advantage of the dynamic web filtering you get with a product like Security Appliance.
Pruning
Let's take the #1 online shopping website as an example. Much of what is seen on the home page is unnecessarily distracting and can be inappropriate as well. Security Appliance dynamically filters out most of the home page, but leaves the search function still usable.
Blocking
Dynamic filtering also means knowing the difference between generally harmless categories (like automotive parts & accessories) and questionable categories (like Movies/Visual Media).
How is content rated?
At its core, the Redwood classifies text into categories. But what kind of categories? And what do those categories represent? The Security Appliance uses a rating system to represent the tone of a category and represent it visually.
But what kind of rating system? Unlike other filter projects, the Security Appliance does not rating content by who it's appropriate for - as in Everyone / Teens / Adults - but somewhat more like where it is appropriate. The rating names are drawn from the concept of particulate filtering - how fine or coarse is the filter mesh that would permit the content to traverse it.
A key assumption is that the Internet is most frequently being used in a workplace environment, facilitating the everyday tasks of research, transactions, and commerce. Usage reports are colorized according to the Category Ratings of the content that was accessed. The Category Ratings can be edited so that the report colors represent the goals / values of end user.
Below is a list of rating definitions that Security Appliance uses to filter all content. Just like a cooking filter, the goal is that only the safe content will pass through untouched, while objectionable content gets removed or blocked by the filter.
We realize some organizations and businesses (like "Therapists" and "Marketers") need access to content that is outside of the usual filtering guidelines. That is why we have designed Security Appliance with the ability to enable access to certain categories (like "health") on a case by case basis.
But rest assured that certain categories will always be blocked.
Customized Reporting
Want a bird's eye view?
Create a report layout that only contains the Graphs and Genres sections.
Want lots of details?
Create a report layout that contains
Domain Name sections.
Powerful Technology
Security Appliance can be installed in one of two ways.
First, Security Appliance is a Linux-based firewall installed physically at the first link of the chain in your network, between the modem and the switch. All traffic from your network flows through this gateway, meaning that no software or configuration is required on the computers or devices on your local network before they are filtered. This effectively limits the internet service you purchase from your provider, before it reaches your devices.
Second, Security Appliance can be installed on individual devices through a cloud connection. The advantage of this configuration is that no hardware is needed.
Due to the gigantic amount of internet content, web page filtering works best with dynamic, real-time analysis of page content. Because content can be good or bad depending on the context, dynamic content analysis should be aware of good and bad content for accuracy. The Redwood filter engine of the Security Appliance classifies HTTP Requests and Responses into categories. Good categories are allowed normally. Block categories show the block page instead.