Gateway Server Content Filtering for Malicious URL Blocking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current internet access control methods fail to effectively filter out malicious or undesirable content from search engine results and web feeds, as website operators use techniques like 'Google-bombing' and 'Spamdexing' to manipulate search rankings and web feed inclusion, leading to users accessing potentially harmful content.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that intercepts content sent in response to user requests, compares it to a categorized database, and modifies or removes objectionable content using a gateway server module with a content filtering module, policy module, and database management system to block malicious URLs and content.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If website operators use techniques like Google-bombing or Spamdexing to manipulate search rankings, then their websites receive more traffic, but malicious or undesirable content is distributed more widely
Solution Approach 1:
A gateway server module is introduced as an intermediary between search engines/aggregators and user devices. This gateway intercepts content before it reaches users, compares it against a categorized database, and filters out malicious URLs. The gateway acts as a mediator that allows legitimate traffic while blocking harmful content, resolving the contradiction between maintaining traffic flow and preventing malicious distribution
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary categorization and classification of URLs by maintaining a database of categorized web addresses before content reaches users. Search engines and aggregators first query the gateway to obtain pre-filtered, categorized results. This preliminary action prevents malicious content from being distributed in the first place, rather than reacting after distribution occurs
2Reliability
If content filtering is implemented to block malicious URLs, then user safety is improved, but access to legitimate content may be restricted
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway server applies different filtering policies to different URLs based on their categorized quality. Legitimate URLs are allowed through with full access, while malicious URLs are blocked. The filtering is not uniform but localized to specific content based on its categorization, ensuring that user safety measures do not unnecessarily restrict access to legitimate content
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where the gateway server learns from user interactions and categorization results. When users access content or when content is categorized, this information feeds back into the system to refine future filtering decisions. This feedback loop ensures that filtering becomes more accurate over time, improving user safety while reducing false positives that would restrict legitimate content access
3Object-affected harmful factors
If a gateway server intercepts and filters all content requests, then malicious content is blocked, but network processing time and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway server performs partial filtering by focusing on categorizing and filtering URLs rather than analyzing all content within each web page. It intercepts HTTP requests, extracts URLs, compares them against the categorized database, and blocks only the malicious URLs. This partial action approach provides effective malicious content blocking without the excessive complexity of full content analysis
Solution Approach 2:
The gateway server segments the content filtering process into distinct functional modules: URL extraction from HTTP requests, URL comparison against the categorized database, and selective blocking decisions. This segmentation allows each module to perform its specific function efficiently, reducing overall processing complexity while maintaining effective malicious content blocking
Data Source
AI summary
Certain embodiments provide for systems and methods of monitoring data sent from a requested device to a requesting device and removing certain portions of the data such as malicious or otherwise objectionable content. Objectionable content may include, for example, potentially executable web content. In certain embodiments, the systems and methods remove uniform resource locator (URL) links from the intercepted data which point to web pages having malicious or otherwise objectionable content.