Cisco shines light on dark corners of the Web

Cisco announced last week the launch of software that shines light on potentially troublesome websites hidden in what the US computer security firm dubbed the "Dark Web." The idea behind Cisco IronPort Web Usage Controls is to identify content that has escaped detection by business IT managers and security applications because of its stealthy nature on the Internet. Cisco claims it can identify as much as 90% of this traffic.

The Dark Web (as Cisco calls it) has been formed largely as a result of tidal wave of Web pages triggered by Web 2.0 trends in user-generated content such as blogging and social networking.

According to the AFP:

Only 20 percent of the more than 45 billion websites in the world are reportedly categorized effectively enough to be used by filtering programs, leaving 80 percent of the Web in the dark.

Tests of Ironport Web Usage Controls reportedly identified 50 percent more off-limits websites than did previous-generation filtering software relying on website address lists.

"We are doing pretty well; there is room for improvement," Kennedy said. "You have to balance between catch rate and false-positive rate."

False positives are times when filtering software blocks access to websites that don't deserve to be off-limits by company standards.

Cisco's announcement is a good reminder that URL lists, while important should never be the only source of protection in the web proxy. In today's Web 2.0 world, you absolutely need some type of real time rating system to find "dark web" pages and protect your users from this content. The good news here, is there are proxy vendors who already provide this type of service, including now, Cisco.