Which filtering?

[TechMonkey]

Which features do you wish we would... shamelessly research? Always in the market for ways to improve!

 

The once feature that always catches my eye is that have a great image report that thumbnails what images have popped up within the reporting period and reporting target, which is a great way of eyeballing any issues. I'm not sure the full ins and outs, it is one of their show pieces in a demo. I'm trying to remember the other features (as that does sound a bit pony when written out) that caught my eye, just little quality of life things.

 

I'll drop you a DM if anything else comes to mind.

[Zoom7000]

I voted NetSweeper, but it's a very heavily customised version called WebScreen 2.0 provided by LGfL.

[PaddyNewman]

I voted NetSweeper, but it's a very heavily customised version called WebScreen 2.0 provided by LGfL.

SchoolProtect

[Sylv3r]

It's not our main filtering product, but we also use SENSO for devices taken off site - which I admit isn't a fully blown filtering product, it ticks a box.

[jdg101]

Other: Sophos

[pete]

Which features do you wish we would... shamelessly research? Always in the market for ways to improve!

 

I was promised SIEM integration in 2016 (https://www.edugeek.net/forums/smoothwall-direct-support/172292-do-you-use-siem-security-information-event-management.html)

 

But seriously, just an "username at IP/DNSname triggered an alert (don't need the details)" fed into Graylog/Wazuh/Windows event log forwarder would make log correlation across N+1 systems much easier when investigating the more serious incidents.

 

Reviewing safeguarding alerts to make sure they're DSL-friendly too. Especially for blocked web searches where the search term isn't broken out clearly in the report. Redacted example below.

 

 

I can tell they're searching for tobacco products and (given the context of the particular child) that it needs dealing with, but a more obvious "term searched for" field would greatly improve it.

[pete]

Interested which cloudflare service you are using and how its configured. Are you just using 1.1.1.1 as a DNS forwarder?

 

Sorry, missed this. Yeah, used as a forwarder MAT-wide (no adult content or malware) and also (where we can*) set as connection-agnostic DNS for devices that roam. It's the "filter of last resort".

 

*can cause problems if a guest network at another school blocks use of third-party DNS and not all OS support a "use this DNS regardless of where you are".

[PaddyNewman]

How do they deal with ECH? I personally wouldn't trust DNS based filters with anything.

[supportman]

Sorry, missed this. Yeah, used as a forwarder MAT-wide (no adult content or malware) and also (where we can*) set as connection-agnostic DNS for devices that roam. It's the "filter of last resort".

 

*can cause problems if a guest network at another school blocks use of third-party DNS and not all OS support a "use this DNS regardless of where you are".

 

Very interesting, something that actually I had not heard about. More info here:

 

https://blog.cloudflare.com/introducing-1-1-1-1-for-families/

[mthomas08]

Thank you everyone for the votes, the pecking order is pretty much what I expected.

 

Smoothwall - by a clear mile and half.

Lightspeed

Securly / Net Sweeper

Sophos

 

The others seem to be a mixture of 1s and 2 votes each with a total of 70-80.

 

This helps in our current discussion or shall I say comment made by a visitor and if we did choose to run a tender process.. odds are we wouldn't be going for their recommended one.

[TechMonkey]

Gawn, what was the suggestion?

[mthomas08]

Gawn, what was the suggestion?

 

Not the top 2

[gszech]

Other: GoGuardian

 

Sadly schools can't use GoGuardian. It's not on the list:

https://www.iwf.org.uk/membership/our-members/

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-digital-and-technology-standards-in-schools-and-colleges/filtering-and-monitoring-standards-for-schools-and-colleges

[h=3]Technical requirements to meet the standard  [/h]The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) provide lists of illegal websites that filtering providers can block as part of their service, known as blocklists. Schools and colleges must make sure these blocklists are included with their filtering solutions. Your school or college should not be able to disable these blocklists or remove items from them.

[thebatman]

Voted Managed as we use LGfL. WebScreen

[sigma]

Voted Managed as we use LGfL. WebScreen

 

But that's Netsweeper, so a split vote....

 

We have SBB Netsweeper, but I would never describe that as "managed".

 

There's no category for "mitigated" to correct their "less than safe" configuration.