UK headquartered Sophos offers web content filtering.
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Symantec WebFilter / Intelligence Services
Score 8.0 out of 10
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Symantec WebFilter / Intelligence Services (formerly Blue Coat WebFilter) is a web application protection and web content filtering solution, designed to allow users to control access to web content and block web threats with advanced threat defense and real-time global threat intelligence.
Before Sophos, I would receive scammers regarding tradeshow lists. People wanted me to pay for lists, but these people weren't actually from the tradeshows. I can now block those, and have received much fewer of those scams. I am also able to open emails within quarantine to view them before deleting, releasing, allowing, or blocking. I use this to my advantage, and am able to make better decisions on what to do with the emails.
Having an end to end solution for web / mobile applications in terms of protecting it from online cyber security threats, Symantec WebFilter / Intelligence Services provides great solution. You also get an ability to configure your security profile so that the contents that may be desired for you but not recommended can be allowed on your network
Allowing options: I am able to choose from several different options (release, release and allow, delete, block, block and report to Spam)
Warning labels: emails have labels at the top to define if an email is from a trusted sender or the email is from an external sender and may not be trusted. I can block those emails, if I choose to
Quarantine emails: I appreciate the 2x daily emails detailing which emails have been quarantined, and if I would like to release them or delete them
I really like the system, it's easy to use and mostly intuitive. I would have gone 10/10, but the management interface uses Java, and that seems to always make things a bit harder to start. Once everything is loaded and running, it's great - but it does require me to maintain a compatible version of Java on the machine I use to access the system, I'd be much happier with some kind of HTML5 interface. I also deducted 1 point for the functionality of the refer filter - it works as expected, but if the site isn't coded with the correct refer header, like Microsoft's site - then some page elements get stripped and pages only render about 98% correctly. I know that's not in Symantec's list of responsibilities, but having a filter that doesn't fully understand CDNs is worth the 1 point ding.
I've had exactly 1 problem in 8 years, I contacted support via the customer portal, less than an hour later I found myself in a screen share with a support tech who not only fixed my configuration error, but also took the time to ask about my usage and offered some great tips on changes. It was just one support incident, but I was impressed by the speed of response to a non-critical issue as well as the depth of product knowledge the support engineer had.
Sophos competes well with other content filtering products. It's categorization is on par if not better than the competition. What stands out most for me is it's ability to integrate seamlessly with the Sophos XG and XDR and Endpoint solutions. Like most network security products, it's often best integration to stick with the same family and the Sophos solution is no different. Because of that, I feel the overall product offering from Sophos (outside of Content Filtering) is on-par with other solutions as well so it's a no-brainer if you use Sophos firewalls, Sophos Content Filtering is the best choice.
Symantec WebFilter / Intelligence Services solution was a simple 1U appliance that does everything we need, compared to the Forcepoint solution which required a virtual appliance, a database server, a log server, and a management server - the licensing costs alone make the Symantec WebFilter / Intelligence Services solution a clear winner. The Forcepoint solution is really good, it just requires such a big footprint without delivering much beyond what the Symantec WebFilter / Intelligence Services solution does with a single unit.
