Websense Content Gateway

About Websense Content Gateway:

Websense Content Gateway is a central gateway for controlling Web content. Websense Content Gateway integrates with Websense Web Filter and Websense Web Security to further increase the level of security for the Web. The Websense Content Gateway provides visibility into SSL encrypted Web traffic, to ensure that malicious content cannot enter your network. It also enables real-time categorization of dynamic Web 2.0 content, as well as identifying previously unvisited sites that might only exist for a very short period of time such as those used for phishing attacks and proxy avoidance Web sites.

• Prevent encrypted SSL Web traffic from circumventing defined Web security policy
• Categorize Web 2.0 sites in real-time, based on actual content, rather than the Web site category
• Identify and block previously unvisited malicious sites, such as phishing or proxy avoidance sites, which typically only exist for hours

Features:

Robust Web Proxy and Cache Platform:

High Performance:

• Accelerated response times for the most popular content via RAM caching and content pre-population.
• Maximized storage and retrieval efficiency due to a web object-optimized raw disk cache
• Simultaneous network service and data store using the streamlined DataFlow architecture
• Fast, asynchronous DNS resolver streamlines the conversion of host names to IP addresses

Reliable:

• Requests are not lost in the event of a hardware failure due to automatic virtual IP failover
• Automatically senses and compensates if a hardware failure occurs using self-monitoring clustered or hierarchal cache deployments
• Proxy-only failover if caching is disrupted by disk failure
• Protection from traffic spikes and denial-of-service attacks by means of system overload detection and throttling
• Graceful pass-through proxying under extreme load conditions by means of load shedding
• Maintenance-free cache restarting after network shutdowns due to automatic fast-system restarts

Scalable:

• Increased network performance and reliability by managing cache clusters
• Increased network efficiency by deploying cache hierarchies
• Advanced transparent proxy deployments include Layer 4 switches, Web Cache Control Protocol(WCCP), and policy-based routing

Easy Administration and Control:

Configuration:

• Ensures seamless web security integration and total solution compatibility within any environment
• Management clustering for sharing of configuration information

Management:

• Centralized web-based proxy and cache configuration
• Unique access privileges for multiple administrators
• Customizable SNMP messages allow integration partners to monitor proxy-related alerts alongside Websense alerts
• Email alerts for any detected failure condition
• Secured command-line interface

Reporting:

• Extensive real-time Java™-based charting and analysis modules complement Websense Reporting Tools
• Multi-Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG) for quick and easy analysis of historical cache trends and system usage
• Multiple standard and user-specified logging formats
• Log collation for one centralized log server and log splitting by hostname or protocol

Extensive Protocol Support:

Pass-through Data Transport (via Websense Content Gateway):

• HTTP proxy and cache
• FTP proxy and cache
• SOCKS firewall integration

Pass-by Data Transport (via Websense Network Agent):

• Identify and block over 80 protocols, hundreds of clients and malicious network traffic via protocol signatures
• Point-and-click management and maintenancefree dynamic updates
• Instant Messaging (IM) category includes AOL®, MSN®, Yahoo!® and another 15+ protocols
• Peer-to-Peer (P2P) category includes BitTorrent™, eDonkey, Gnutella, Skype™ and another 10+ protocols
• Streaming Media category includes Quicktime®, RealPlayer®, Windows Media® and another 5+ protocols
• Malicious Traffic, Proxy Avoidance, and IM Attachment categories control [potentially] malicious content

Network Management:

• SNMP alerting for Security Event Management (SEM)
• ICP for cache coordination provides compatibility with existing network caches
• WCCP for transparent caching with WCCPenabled routers

Secure Web Proxy and Cache:

• Access control lists define which hosts by IP address can access the management console
• SSL protection with HTTPS tunneling for remote administration and control

Websense Content Gateway as an HTTP forward proxy cache to improve network efficiency for authorized web content.

1. User requests for web content go to the Websense Content Gateway on the way to the remote web server.
2. If the Websense Content Gateway contains the requested content, it serves the content directly.
3. If the Websense Content Gateway does not have the content, it acts as a proxy and gets the content from the origin server on the user's behalf, while keeping a copy to satisfy future content requests.
4. Websense Content Gateway's cache indexes static web content according to URLs and associated headers.

Advanced System Features:

Granular HTTP Cache Control:

• Content fingerprinting eliminates duplication of content in the cache and maximizes storage efficiency
• Document cacheable control via dynamic and static bypass rules
• Freshness checking—the expired content is ignored
• Support for content freshness commands including "never-cache," "pin-in-cache," and "revalidate-after"
• Support for host and domain name expansion allows clients to use abbreviations for proxied content

Cache Partitioning:

• Guarantee caching space by protocol or domain type

DNS Proxy Cache:

• Offload remote DNS servers
• Reduces response time for DNS lookups

User Authentication (via Websense Content Gateway):

• User Directories:
  • LDAP-based (Active Directory®, Novell® eDirectory™ or Sun Java™ Systems Directory Server)
  • Microsoft Windows® NT LAN Manager (NTLM)
  • RADIUS server
• Alternatively, supports user identification-only

User Identification (via Websense Web Filter or Websense Web Security):

• User Directories:
  • Active Directory, Novell eDirectory or Sun Java Systems Directory Server
  • Microsoft Windows NT LAN Manager (NTLM)
  • RADIUS server
• Gateway integrations (Microsoft® ISA Server, Citrix®)
• Websense Logon Agent

Documentation:

Download the Websense Content Gateway Datasheet (PDF).