Web category filtering
Forcepoint Web Security Cloud includes over 95 website categories, designed to help you apply policy filtering to your organization’s web traffic. Website classifications are drawn from the Forcepoint URL Database, the industry’s most accurate, current, and comprehensive classification of URLs. Website classifications are updated according to automated threat monitoring from Forcepoint Threatseeker Intelligence, research by Forcepoint Security Labs, and intelligence from customer feedback.
In addition to standard categories, you can create your own custom categories in order to classify specific websites. Use the page to define your own categories.
Click the Web Categories tab in a policy to configure the action you want to take when users try to access websites in each of the categories.
In the standard categories section, child categories are indented under their parent categories. Parent categories allow specific categories to be grouped by a more generic description. You can set an action for a parent category without it affecting the child category, or apply the action to all sub-categories.
- Allow access means that any website within the category is always accessible, regardless of whether it exists in another category that has the Block
access action. Note: Websites blocked by a security category override this action, and are always blocked.
- Do not block ensures that the site is not blocked under this rule, but if it also exists in another category that has an action of Block access, it is blocked under that category.
- Confirm means that users receive a block page, asking them to confirm that the site is being accessed for business purposes. Clicking Continue enables the user to view the site, and starts a timer. During a configurable time period (10 minutes by default), the user can visit any site that requires confirmation without receiving another block page. Once the time period ends, browsing to these sites requires the user to click Confirm again.
- Use Quota means that users receive a block page, asking them whether to use quota time to view the site. If users click Use Quota Time, they can
view the site for a configurable period.
Clicking Use Quota Time starts two timers: a quota session timer and a total quota allocation timer. The session length and total quota time available for each category depend on the options selected on the General tab.
- Block access blocks access to websites in this category unless they exist in another category with the Allow access action. When a site is blocked, you can choose a notification page to be displayed.
For more information, see Web Categories tab in the Web Security Cloud help.