Although the role of the lowly URL has really grown over the past few years, some things never change. At first, it was just basic web static content coming over on port 80, then it was encrypted static content on port 443. But now virtually everything from static to dynamic traffic travels both in and out of your networks on these two ports … and your task is to make sense of it.

Fortunately, your OEM partner has HTTPS inspection ability on dynamic traffic, such as all social media updates.

URL content filtering was once a simple set of tools to help point your Web browser at the Web page of your choice and do it safely. At first, there were a few companies that provided this service. Today, URL content filtering is sometimes looked at as a commodity, something required for a variety of reasons and used in many different and diverse ways, but still a requirement.

Today, URLs have become a highly extensible ‘meta language’ that allows remote computers to exchange static and executable content and commands that act as a conduit for client/server communication over port 80 and 443. The industry has moved from blacklists to whitelists, categorization databases, and dynamic real-time categorization of URL content.

Managing the URLs that enter and leave your network is an important control point to reduce risks and mitigate damage. When building solutions and partnering with an OEM vendor, look for a partner that only focuses on the proper categorization of the URL. This “simple commodity” isn’t so simple – and can reflect heavily on your end-users’ experience.

Need some HTTPS inspection? inCompass® by NetSTAR has you covered.