Internet filtering system cleans out unwanted Web sites, e-mail for BYU-Idaho students

Websense and Symantec Antivirus and Filtering System Web filters, managed by the network operation office, keep unwanted e-material out of students’ accounts at BYU-Idaho.

“We have some control over what’s filtered and what’s not, but we don’t have to police it all the time,” George Cromwell, BYU-Idaho e-mail and systems administrator, said.

The service the university subscribes to researches the Internet and categorizes Web sites they want to filter. Administrators then put that information into the filters, Michael Lehman, assistant Dean of Students, said.

“The Internet filter does not filter word by word but is site-based,” Lehman said.

When a restricted Web site is brought up, students can find out why the site was blocked and submit a request to the company about why that site should be accessible, Lehman said.

The Dean of Students is able to monitor hits on restricted sites.

Every Web site students hit goes through the filter. The system will keep track of who is hitting those sites, Lehman said.

“It is not a fool-proof thing ... but we try to keep students in areas we want them in,” Lehman said.

The system filters both incoming and outgoing e-mail.

“[The filter is] an automotive process of cleaning those [unclean] things out of the system,” Cromwell said.

It detects e-mails carrying viruses, spam or content violations. The filter also contains a predefined dictionary that finds e-mails with certain words, Cromwell said.

“Even though it is only a small percentage [that the scanner catches], it helps because if we let the e-mails run through without the filter, the computer system would always be shut down because of viruses,” Cromwell said.

Viruses are one of the main reasons for the system.

“Virus protection is the reason we brought this system in,” Cromwell said.

Over a two- to three-month period, the system detected a cumulative number of about 7,000 viruses, Cromwell said.

In Fall Semester 2001, there was a problem with viruses which caused connection to the Internet to be lost for 24 hours.

“Since we got the new antivirus, the overall health of the system has improved. Now if there are problems, they are very isolated and rare,” Cromwell said.