Web Content Filter
CIPAFilter’s Content Filter system was designed to provide school district technology coordinators with a simplified and more effective approach to web filtering. The system was developed based on feedback from schools, and offers a set-and-forget system that does not over block web-sites, prevents use of anonymous proxy servers and circumvention, and uses a very strict context-sensitive pornography filtering algorithm.
Enhanced Pornography Filteringthat is not as vulnerable to most filter circumvention methods and catches inappropriate content regardless of the source address, due to the context-sensitive system that looks at each page automatically prior to it reaching your network. By not using a database, CIPAFilter avoids the “cat-and-mouse” game and focuses on catching content as it is discovered by your students. Advanced Anonymous Proxy Detection
that utilizes the energy of your students to find these proxies for you, detecting new proxies as they are accessed by students nationwide and immediately alerting all CIPAFilter’s – making it exceedingly difficult to locate and use these services! Virtually Eliminate Over Blocking
CIPAFilter’s approach is to help schools rid false positives for good. Stop relying on purely black-list based filtering and decrease the need for having to unblock web-sites and create override accounts Pornography Filtering
The pornography filtering is a very innovative context-sensitive algorithm that was designed to block as much pornography as possible without blocking legitimate web-sites. These results are attained by using a balance between “good”, “bad” and “cancel” words. By carefully examining and balancing these variables, we have built a filter that displays complex emergent behavior. CIPAFilter can ignore words as necessary when used in good context and can distinguish the difference between breast cancer research and soft-pornography.
With this technique we can focus on the inappropriate content, while avoiding the ever present collateral damage that other filters cause, that simply use black-lists. Pornography is different from many other categories due to the language and words used. CIPAFilter can identify inappropriate and vulgar language from many other sources such as cached web-sites, web-mail, and anonymous proxy servers, personal web-pages and more.
The filtering system is automatic and does not need to be updated. It also includes an automatic strict safe-search enforcement for common search engines, which will aid in preventing inappropriate search words or images on Google Images for example.
Anonymous Proxy Server DetectionCIPAFilter has an extremely effective Anonymous Proxy Detection System that greatly reduces the possibility of students circumventing the content filter. This powerful system combines every CIPAFilter that is active on the Internet, blocking a new proxy that is found nationwide within hours.
Content Filter BlacklistCIPAFilter’s URL content filter black-list consists of selected categories that can successfully be blocked, without causing false positives. CIPAFilter focuses on key categories that relate to education, and instead of creating lots of subcategories and inducing more granularity. This is a major philosophical difference between our content filter and competitors in the marketplace.
Category black-lists are updated automatically each night, and a major source for new updates is by investigating what web-sites students are gaining access to, helping us focus on adding web-sites that users are actually finding.
Authentication and Customized Filtering PrivilegesCIPAFilter currently authenticates against Windows Active Directory, Novell EDirectory, and MAC Open Directory. With authentication enabled, each user-group may have a separate white-lists and black-lists and categories. You can allow shopping and web-mail access to teachers for example, and not for students, or block a specific web-site for students or a group of students. Internet access can also be disabled for a user. CIPAFilter supports both passive and manual authentication methods for most environments.