Firewall software

[Dan Lester]

As most of you know, I'm NOT an advocate of blocking software for libraries.  However, this message, from yesterday's update on Wired, should be of interest.

The URL is: http://www.wired.com/news/email/5167.html

Many workplaces already use proxy servers to block employee access to various kinds of internet resources for various reasons.  This appears to be an interesting way of selling proxy server SERVICES, rather than the hardware and software themselves.

Note that I'm also NOT recommending for or against these or any other products or services.  I'm simply providing information for your current awareness.

Article follows:


Family Surfing via Proxy

by Gene Koprowski 
2:57pm**14.Jul.97.PDT A 14-year-old tries to log on to a saucy Web site via the PC in his living room. But his access is blocked. He tries to hack his way around it, and, if he is clever, may be able to get past the Web access blocking software installed on the PC. 

"If he isn't smart enough, there is somebody at school who is and who can teach him. Any kind of desktop content filtering is not an appropriate technology for preventing anyone but small children from getting bad things on the Web," says Michael Zboray, vice president and research director at the Gartner Group. "The way this has to be done is through a proxy server." 

In the coming months, server-based blocking technology will start to make its may into the home PC market, raising the technological stakes in the ever-expanding niche for home-based Web access control. Software developer V-One and ISP Landmark Community Interests plan to debut in September a complete Internet access package for families that want to prevent their kids from surfing to sites they deem off-limits. Called GuardiaNet, the software controls access to the Web by giving parents a master password and by furnishing the kids with "tokens" - limited-use passwords - that enable them to view prescreened sites. 

Proxy server software has been available for some time for the corporate market. Products like Secure Computing's SmartFilter let network managers set up and enforce Web surfing policies. Basically, it sets up an array of routing tables on the PPP server that control online access. Users must have the right password to get full access to the Web, and many are limited to partial, filtered access. Firewalls, from companies like Trusted Information Systems, provide a similar feature for corporate users. 

V-One's GuardiaNet works in coordination with an ISP-based proxy server to extend the technology into homes. 

"It is totally server-based. It sits behind a firewall," says Steve Boyles, Landmark's director of imaging technologies. "By providing it there, we do all of the updating of the off-limits sites. The parent registers on the site, and it automatically defaults to PG-17 content or thereabouts. But as the parent registers, value guidelines are presented. There are different fields that can be created by the parent. Since I have different values than the family across the street, and you have different values than I do, the software lets you build Internet access around your lifestyle." 

This differs from PC-based Web control products, like NetNanny, which provide a predetermined access list of forbidden sites, says Boyles. Moreover, the browser that users deploy is encrypted, which prevents sites from obtaining kids' email addresses and sending them messages. Lastly, GuardiaNet is portable. It recognizes the end-user through a password, not just a PC. So if a child is at a friend's house, and his PC is running GuardiaNet, he can get online there as well. "We want to let the parent control access to the Web in the same way they do with other media technologies at home," says Boyles. 

Zboray of Gartner Group was enthusiastic about the technology. "That makes sense. I'm surprised other ISPs haven't picked up on this idea already," he says. 

In fact, Secure Computing is starting to work with a small ISP on a similar kind of project, said spokesman John Sommerfield. 

Still, critics are cynical about the impact the technology can have. Joe Lehman, a spokesman for the libertarian think tank the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, jokes that "the solution is just to let government control all Internet content. Then no one would need Web monitoring software." Lehman thinks that the technology is no substitute for proper parenting and working with children to determine what kind of Web content is proper for their given age. 

"Pity the poor parent who thinks that all they have to do is install this technology, and their work is done," said Lehman. "This kind of thing is like a white picket fence: You may put it around your property, but if your kid runs out into the street, it is still your responsibility to watch him." 


dan


Dan Lester, Network Information Coordinator
Boise State University Library, Boise, Idaho, 83725 USA
voice: 208-385-1235   fax:  208-385-1394
dlester at bsu.idbsu.edu     OR    alileste at idbsu.idbsu.edu
Cyclops' Internet Toolbox:    http://cyclops.idbsu.edu
"How can one fool make another wise?"   Kansas, 1979.