Hillingdon Grid for Learning Internet Web Filtering Policy

Transcription

1 Hillingdon Grid for Learning Internet Web Filtering Policy Definitions Policy a policy is a collection of allowed categories of website and groups of keywords that is applied to one or more workstations and dictates which websites can viewed. Category a category describes the nature of a website based upon the contents of that site. A small number of categories describe their effect upon access to particular sites School Blocked, for example. Site a physical site which is utilising the HGfL filtering systems. For example, a school, library or adult education centre. LA level filtering - the default filtering system where Local Authority (LA) level filtering policies are applied to all sites by the LA. Local level filtering allows the construction and application of policies at a local Site level. LA level filtering policies these are policies which have been formulated at LA level and which are applied to sites by default. Local level filtering policies these are policies which have been created at Site level and applied to individual workstations and/or groups of workstations based upon the IP addresses/active Directory Organisational Units (OUs). Keyword a string of characters which, when matched against a URL, will block that website. Note: Keywords obey the conventions of Regular Expression syntax but should be used with great caution as it is easy to inadvertently block innoce nt sites through the imprecise definition of keywords. Keyword Set a named collection of keywords that can be applied to a policy. More than one keyword set may be added to a policy. LA Level restricted categories these are categories which the LA has decided should always be either blocked or unblocked across the LA regardless of local Site filtering polices. Web filter manager where a Site has opted to control Local level filtering a Web filter Manager is the person responsible on that Site for administering the Local level filtering element of the system. User a computer user who wishes to access the internet.

2 General Overview of Hillingdon Grid for Learning Filtering The Hillingdon Grid for Learning Internet Web Filtering Policy has been developed to help educational establishments ensure the safety of their Users while using the internet, whilst at the same time retaining the flexibility required for effective administration, teaching and learning. It is important to continue to supervise, monitor, police and educate Users since as with any software solution the filtering of an Internet connection alone cannot guarantee the absolute safety of Users. No filtering system is 100% effective. Filtering is, however, a necessary first step to ensure the Site has taken all reasonable steps to protect Users while accessing the internet. As a result each Site should use this Policy document in conjunction with the Sites own Acceptable Use Policy to provide safe, but productive access to the internet. The Hillingdon web filtering strategy incorporates the use of a filtering solution which is described below. Hillingdon Grid for Learning s web filtering solution involves all outgoing internet traffic being scanned automatically for content. The websites requested queries are then classified into categories based on their content. These categories are then either allowed through or blocked if they are deemed inappropriate, depending on the policy/policies being applied. Search Engines To facilitate filtering on image search thumbnails browsers are limited to Google and Bing. By default Safe Searching is forced on Google, YouTube and Bing. And as a fail -safe Google HTTPS searching is blocked. Non-HTTP Traffic Non-HTTP traffic is filtered by IP address and non-http traffic to unknown IP addresses is blocked.

3 Filtering Policies 1. Default LA level filtering Policies Unless Sites choose otherwise the appropriate policy will be applied automatically to the Sites IP range. - office staff will have the Administration policy applied to their network. - students/public facing computers will have the Curriculum/Public policy applied to their network. 2. Optional LA level filtering Policies Additional LA level filtering policies can be made available to meet the specific needs of individual Sites. Note: these policies have to be in line with Local Authority s data compliance/data Protection policy in the majority of instances. Most of these policies would be minor variants upon the standard default policies designed to allow or restrict access to one or two additional categories. The Admin policy is the best example of an optional policy: In order to have Optional LA Level filter policies applied to one or more workstations in a Site, the request must be submitted through an ed request from a Web filter manager at the Site. 3. Local level filtering Sites now have the choice to elect to make use of the Local level filtering option which allows local management through an interface provided. If this option/override is exercised then authorised users may create and apply policies at Site level. This allows access to categories of websites or specific website addresses (URLs) that are not considered suitable to be allowed under the LA level filtering policies, they may however have educational/learning/administrative merit in certain circumstances. Note: Sites choosing to take up this option/override should realise that the risks of exposure to inappropriate content by Users of the Site network are higher when Users are permitted to access sites which would not be permitted under the LA level filtering policies. As a result, Sites implementing these options will need to ensure that correspondingly high levels of User supervision are used when and where the internet is being accessed. To take up this option/override authorisation from an appropriate level is required (for example, a Head Teacher or Head of Service) to complete the Web filtering manager nomination form found at the end of this document and faxed back to HGfL. Some website categories will continue to be blocked at a LA level. These are defined as LA Level restricted block categories and these are identified later in this document.

4 The current web filtering categories are detailed below, followed by information about which categories are currently available through the standard filtering policies and which can be made available through the Local level filtering option. Key: Category Always Blocked at LA level Local Policy Category blocked but available to staff for override (on application to HGfL) Y N Category Allowed Category Blocked Admin Administrative staff member based in Site or computer owned by Site for administrative purpose. (Mainly on IP range xx.xx) Curric Students, teaching staff based in schools or computer s owned by school for teaching/learning purpose. (Mainly on IP range xx.xx) Staff Administrative staff based in non-school Site. (Mainly on IP range xx.xx) Public Member of public visiting school or non-school Site surfing net on personal device or installed for similar purpose not accessing local servers. (Mainly on IP range xx.xx) Category Name ADULT Cat. # Category Short Description access-denied 67 Site pages that Deny Access or are unauthorized to access. Usually authentication pages, not whole sites. adult 4 Adult Products, Services, Situations of humor adult.art 100 Adult art adult.bodyart 101 Body art, tattoos, body piercings adult.games 102 Adult games adult.language 70 Strong language alcohol 42 Production, promotion and sale of alcoholic beverages drugs 8 Sites promoting illicit and illegal drug use gambling 12 Gambling, casinos, betting, lottery and playfor-cash/sweepstakes offensive 126 Websites considered to be offensive to both adults and children porn 21 Pornography related sites porn.illicit 94 Porn sites involving children Admin Curric Staff Public

5 suspicious 31 violence 32 FORUMS, CHAT, Recently discovered sites with suspicious words or phrases Sites promoting violence and anarchy forums 11 Unmoderated Personal Expression forums.blogs 71 Webblogs forums.dating 118 Dating websites such as friendfinder.com, eharmony.com, match.com, etc. forums.im 61 Instant messaging forums.mail 19 sites forums.newsgroups 38 Newsgroups, usenet and subscription newsletters forums.p2p 60 Peer to peer sites forums.personals 39 Personal web pages and personal ads forums.social_networking 117 Social networking and related websites such as myspace.com, facebook.com, orkut.com SECURITY parked 113 Pay per click hosting web sites that park expired domains security 72 Security risks security.nettools 116 Net tools, remote admin tools, internet server and client applications security.proxy 28 Web proxy servers and open SMTP relays ADVERTISING ads 3 shopping.spam 78 spam 55 BUSINESS AND WORK Ad servers and advertising companies Shopping websites that use spam for marketing Sources of spam mail that does not involve porn, gambling, or drugs automobile 37 Automobiles and motorcycles business 6 Business business.construction 115 Construction, building, plumbing, home improvement business.finance 10 Banking, stock markets, insurance, and financial news business.jobs 18 Employment search, offerings and support business.manufacturing 119 Manufacturing, industrial, and shipping companies business.real_estate 73 Real estate, homes, offices computers 57 Computers & Internet computers.consumer_electronics 128 Consumer electronics - TVs, cell phones, MP3

6 players, etc. computers, filehosting 127 Image, filehosting, shareware, freeware websites ham 56 Legitimate sources of law 68 Law firms, courts, and legal matters microsoft 51 Microsoft and related sites EDUCATION education 9 Education and reference sites education.arts 47 Art, art history, architecture, graphic design,and illustration education.games 74 Educational games for kids education.history 99 History education.literature 48 Literature, libraries, writers education.media 129 Educational streaming media resources education.music 50 Music education, history, instruments, marching, and museums education.science 44 Science and technology education.sex 80 High school level sex education websites education.social_sciences 75 Social sciences FAMILY LIFE family 95 Family life, cooking,gardening, home improvement family.food 76 Restaurants, grocery stores, recipes family.health 43 Health care family.religion 58 Religion & Spirituality photography 132 Photography KIDS AND TEENS kids_and_teens 46 Kid safe web sites kids_and_teens.chat 69 Monitored chat websites suitable for kids MISCELLANEOUS errors 7 Content database errors waiting to be purged expired 105 Domains whose registration has expired general 14 General interest plagarism 112 Websites that sell term papers, research papers and other ways to help students cheat RECREATION audio-video 5 Sources of MP3s, mpegs, and streaming entertainment 45 Movies, television, radio, and celebrities entertainment.radio_and_tv 131 Radio and TV stations games 13 Games, anime, cartoons, wallpapers and screen savers

7 hobby 83 Hobbies, crafts, collecting humor 40 Humor, puzzles, and brain-teasers music 49 Bands and artists, concerts, DJs, lyrics, songwriting, and record labels shopping 29 Shopping sites shopping.auctions 81 Auctions shopping.office_supplies 104 Major office supply websites sports 30 Sports sites sports.fantasy 82 Fantasy football, baseball, soccer, etc. sports.martial_arts 98 Martial arts sports.youth 84 High schools sports teams and youth sports leagues travel 36 Hotels, resorts, cruises, transportation and vacation offerings REFERENCE directory 34 Directories and portals about specialized topics news 20 News, Magazines, TV News Stations and Radio News stations Search* 85 Major search engines SOCIETY government 15 Federal, state, local and international government society 79 Culture, issues, ethnicity, people society.crime 97 Crime and the justice system society.politics 96 Politics, political activism, political issues world 59 Sites about regions and languages of the world world.cn 107 World websites - Chinese world.de 86 World websites - German world.es 87 World websites - Spanish world.fr 88 World websites - French world.it 89 World websites - Italian world.jp 90 World websites - Japanese world.kr 108 World websites - Korean world.nl 91 World websites - Netherlands world.pl 106 World websites - Polish world.pt 92 World websites - Portuguese world.ru 93 World websites - Russian Rating G-Rated 120 G-Rated PG-Rated 121 PG-Rated R-Rated 122 R-Rated S-Rated 124 S-Rated X-Rated 123 X-Rated

8 HGfL Web Filter Manager Nomination Form Please nominate the member of staff who will act as the Web Filter Manager for your Site. This may be the person who is responsible for running your Site s local area network and could be the person already identified as the nominated contact for your Site. Please FAX the completed form to HGfL Service Desk: The person s details will be entered in HGfL s support database and he/she will then be able to change the Web Filtering settings for your Site. If you choose to take up this option you must understand that the risks of exposure to inappropriate content or abuse of the schools network are higher than when accessing web sites normally filtered by the Hillingdon standard filter policies and you must be willing to accept responsibility and liability for any inappropriate use. Name: Position: address: Daytime telephone number: Evening telephone number: Mobile telephone number: To be signed by appropriate authority I authorise the above named person to act on behalf of the Site in all matters pertaining to the Sites Web Filtering service and I accept responsibility and liability for the consequences of any inappropriate use of the internet or abuse of the Site network by Site Users (including visitors). Site name: Head of service/headteachers name: address: Daytime telephone number: Signed: Date: