Feature of the Day: Secure Internet Filtering
Thursday, January 15, 2009, 9:14 AM
I’d like to use this time to discuss and educate parents about some of the latest and greatest features found with Net Nanny. In this last release, Net Nanny 6.0 introduced several ground-breaking features, unfortunately many parents have a hard time grasping the importance and relevance of some of these features. One of the main features introduced in this release was “Secure Internet Filtering.
“What does that even mean? Great question! Let’s break it apart. “Secure Internet or “Encrypted Internet describes all of the websites you would normally visit, except the encrypted versions of them. For example, http://www.netnanny.com is a URL or website that you would regularly visit. If we changed http:// to https:// you would now be visiting the secure version of the website. All this really means is, any information you put on this website cannot be viewed by anyone that may be “tapping your internet line. This is important for credit card transactions, usernames and passwords, and all that information you don’t want others to know about. Unfortunately tech-savvy kids are using this very technique to get around parental controls and internet filtering. "https://some-adult-website-that-your-kids-shouldn’t-be-looking-at.com".
Now the “Internet Filtering part of the puzzle. This is the beauty of this new feature. Net Nanny will be able to correctly filter the websites that use https:// whilst maintaining the security of your private information. Although this ability has been around in the corporate and business environments for a while, no other family-friendly parental control product can do this. We’ve simply taken the corporate appliance technology and brought it into your home. Nice!!
Now you might be saying, “I need another example, where else have I seen something like this? Remember all of those espionage movies where the President says, “Is this line secure?, and he picks up the phone and talks to General Schwarzenegger about the “launch codes. It’s a lot like that, but Net Nanny is like the Presidential aid in the background that screens the call and makes sure it’s secure before the President takes it. Net Nanny will ensure your personal information is still secure, but prevent access to unwanted “calls or in our case objectionable websites.
I hope this helps you understand a little more about Secure Internet Filtering. In upcoming posts I’ll tackle ESRB games, cyber-predators and cyber-bullying. Stay tuned.
“What does that even mean? Great question! Let’s break it apart. “Secure Internet or “Encrypted Internet describes all of the websites you would normally visit, except the encrypted versions of them. For example, http://www.netnanny.com is a URL or website that you would regularly visit. If we changed http:// to https:// you would now be visiting the secure version of the website. All this really means is, any information you put on this website cannot be viewed by anyone that may be “tapping your internet line. This is important for credit card transactions, usernames and passwords, and all that information you don’t want others to know about. Unfortunately tech-savvy kids are using this very technique to get around parental controls and internet filtering. "https://some-adult-website-that-your-kids-shouldn’t-be-looking-at.com".
Now the “Internet Filtering part of the puzzle. This is the beauty of this new feature. Net Nanny will be able to correctly filter the websites that use https:// whilst maintaining the security of your private information. Although this ability has been around in the corporate and business environments for a while, no other family-friendly parental control product can do this. We’ve simply taken the corporate appliance technology and brought it into your home. Nice!!
Now you might be saying, “I need another example, where else have I seen something like this? Remember all of those espionage movies where the President says, “Is this line secure?, and he picks up the phone and talks to General Schwarzenegger about the “launch codes. It’s a lot like that, but Net Nanny is like the Presidential aid in the background that screens the call and makes sure it’s secure before the President takes it. Net Nanny will ensure your personal information is still secure, but prevent access to unwanted “calls or in our case objectionable websites.
I hope this helps you understand a little more about Secure Internet Filtering. In upcoming posts I’ll tackle ESRB games, cyber-predators and cyber-bullying. Stay tuned.
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Comments
Excellent Comment! I want to assure you that Net Nanny will not store any private information such as passwords or other secure content. You'll also be pleased to know that Net Nanny was built with the flexibility to disable all SSL (https://) filtering. This can be accomplished by selecting the appropriate user, clicking "Additional Settings" under "Filter Settings", and selecting "Allow secure content". Here's a little more information about how the feature works. Similar to the way Net Nanny analyzes http:// websites, Net Nanny will not look at or store any login information, passwords, etc; instead it will only analyze the plain text content on each page to determine if it should be allowed or blocked. All analysis and filtering is done on your computer. There is no further analysis needed so no personal information is passed over the Internet. What happens on your computer stays on your computer. Because this is one of the most requested features in parental controls Net Nanny has taken a secure approach to assuring your protection. In fact, SSL filtering has been available in most Business Appliance filters for years. We've simply taken an existing technology and brought it to your home without compromising your security. So, no need to leave, we've got you taken care of.
Posted by Anonymous, 24/03/2009 2:59pm (4 years ago)
This is actually a GREAT thing for kids that want to get around Net Nanny, but it BREAKS the whole idea of internet security; No more am I at the mercy of the strength of my passwords (and the sites I do online secure related activity) when I do internet banking, online purchases, etc, etc, but I now trust Net Nanny with all my secure online activity. I trust you to filter my web-site activity for my kids, you do a GREAT job with that, but to give you the keys to all my accounts, I really don't think so - You are in essence PROXYING my secure transactions - which means you see EVERYTHING that is going over the wire there as well. I doubt that I will be renewing my subscription when it runs up at the end of May - UNLESS I can turn off SSL filtering - and even then, I have my doubts. Is this a newer "Feature" that has crept in recently?
Posted by Anonymous, 22/03/2009 3:47am (4 years ago)
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