Internet filtering specialist Bloxx has unveiled its hardware-based Tru-View Technology (TVT), a new offering designed to help fine-tune the content that should be blocked on an organisation's.
The system is principally aimed at the public sector, such as the NHS and colleges, in addition to larger corporations.
Building on existing keyword and URL scanning techniques, the appliance-based system adds automated site parsing via Bloxx's Live Classifier and Sensibility Manager systems.
In other words, the particular content of a website is classified dynamically rather than relying on a blacklist of URLs. A football messageboard should still be blocked, regardless of whether the URL is listed in the banned sports sites category, for example.
This system should help block illegal content, which is often hosted for short periods of time, Bloxx claims. "We've recognised that relying purely on lists for web filtering is no longer an acceptable level of protection in keeping up with the sheer turnover of websites and the increasing number of anonymous proxies being created," said Bloxx's sales and marketing director, Paul Irvine.
He said the company's filtering techniques mean that decisions are no longer black or white. Instead, admins are offered degrees of control over 50 various subject categories, such as 'hate and discrimination' and 'sport.' (The constant repetition of the word 'they' is a good indicator of a hate site, according to Bloxx). These filters can be fine-tuned and particular sites can always be white-listed via the browser-based interface.
It can also block Instant messaging or p2p activity and track the use of anonymous proxies.
Sitting behind a firewall and working in pass-through mode, other modules in the TVT mix include an anti-phishing warning system, courtesy of NetCraft, and malware detection. Clam software is the default malware provider, but other third-party systems, such as Sophos, can be configured.
The entry-level TVT-100, suitable for sub-100 PC networks, costs 2,095, with the price rising to 33,000 for the dual-core Xeon-based TVT-Impressa, aimed at networks with 1,000s of PCs.
