Do any of the major players still do web content filtering?
I work for a sleepy Midwestern insurance company and over the summer the IT security team here rolled out a product on all company laptops called ZScaler, which does web content filtering. They block things like Gmail, Spotify, YouTube, etc. I had a chance to chat with one of the managers on the security team the other day and he pretty clearly had a hero complex about it. He spoke of all the ways that theyâve âprotected the businessâ without giving any evidence of actually doing so, and while dismissing all the obvious downsides. Frankly (even before the pandemic), web content filtering never really worked. There are so many ways to get around it. Post-pandemic, with everyone working from home, itâs easier than ever to circumvent. Anyone still touting its benefits is clearly just delusional and in an echo chamber. But Iâm wondering if this phenomenon of trying to filter, control, and monitor the web traffic of every employee is unique to the Midwest, or to insurance companies? Or if any of the major tech players still do it? And would you actively avoid a workplace that has web filtering turned on?
All companies with good IT block phishing and malware. Usually monitoring too but only for security, like to track down the source of a breach. Blocking sites for âproductivityâ is stupid.
Pretty common, in most financial companies you wonât be able to access Gmail etc due to security reasons. YouTube etc depends on the company but many blocks it. Same with social media. I believe itâs mix of security and bandwidth reasons.
YouTube being such a huge security threat.
You tube is not blocked by every company but some. To me it makes sense to allow highest bandwidth to business use specifically in WFH when remote connectivity and video calls are through to roof. Anyways why do you need to use company device for that? You can always use your phone or personal laptop if you really need to see that video. My company doesnât block YouTube though.
Lol I am working on a module that does web content filtering. Its going to be used in Japan for the general subscribers of a telco. It is heavily used all across the world and big tech companies not only use it for their employees, they build it for the world as well
Amazon started doing DNS filtering on Macs in the last year. Some random software (which you used to have to download outside of VPN, probably totally blocked now) is always prevented from updating, and you get an annoying popup. VPN has already been filtering those since before the local filtering was added. None of the major consumer sites are in the filter, so not sure it counts for you. They do have Google's Go modules proxy included in the list for whether silly reason, so at least one programming language doesn't work unless you take extra action to disable the proxy that Google runs. Blocked even without VPN now due to the local filtering.
Run from the company.. itâs 20 year old tactics in security engineering. Ask the mgr dude to get new books on security!!
Monitoring to some extent is on. Filtering (blocking malware is on). But no where I've worked have I ever found websites blocked. Blocking YouTube/Spotify might actually be to save bandwidth rather than a way to reduce wasted employee time.