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Skyhigh Security

Using Your Own URL Filter Database

URL filtering can be performed using information that is retrieved from a database of your own.

URL filtering on a Web Gateway appliance uses information about the categories that URLs fall into and the web reputation scores that are assigned to them. This information is retrieved from the local URL filter database, the Global Threat Intelligence system, or the Dynamic Content Classifier, depending on how the settings of the module for URL filtering are configured.

The information in the local database is the result of storing categories and web reputation scores there after they have been determined for particular URLs by the Global Threat Intelligence system. When a lookup in the local database yields no results, the other two information sources can additionally be used.

Instead of the local database, you can use a database of your own, containing information on URL categories and web reputation scores. To replace the local database, you need to specify the URL of the server that your database resides on when configuring the Central Management settings.

You can use your own database as the source that is searched first to retrieve URL filtering information, but also disable the other two sources and restrict the filtering process to using the information stored in your database.

Configure use of your own URL filter database

To retrieve URL filtering information from a database of your own, configure the use of this database as part of the Central Management settings.

  1. Select Configuration | Appliances.
  2. On the appliances tree, select the appliance that should use your database information and click Central Management.
  3. Scroll down to Advanced Update Settings.
  4. In the Enter a special custom parameter for an update server field, enter the URL of the server that your database resides on.
  5. Click Save Changes.

When database information is used to filter URLs on the appliance, it is not retrieved from the local database, but from your own database.

You can additionally disable other sources of URL filtering information to restrict the filtering process to the information stored in your own database.

Restrict URL filtering to using database information

To use only database information for URL filtering, disable use of the Global Threat Intelligence system and the Dynamic Content Classifier.

If you configured the use of your own URL filter database, filtering information is retrieved only from this database.

  1. Select Policy | Settings.
  2. Under Engines | URL Filter, select the URL Filter settings you want to disable information sources for.
  3. Under Rating Settings, deselect the following two checkboxes one after another:
    • Enable the Dynamic Content Classifier if GTI web categorization yields no result
    • Use online GTI web reputation and categorization services if local rating yields no result
  4. Click Save Changes.
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