Is there a way to setup a policy that allows only one website and blocks all the rest, without having to think of every single website to put in Website Management to block?
Is there a way to setup a policy that allows only one website and blocks all the rest, without having to think of every single website to put in Website Management to block?
Although Sophos' Web Control component isn't intended to be used for this specific use-case, some of the recent improvements to Web Control allow it to behave nearly the same as a Full Web Filter.
You'll first need to enroll a test device into the "New Endpoint Protection Features" Early Access Program. Once registered, you'll need to change the "Web Control" policy so that all category options are listed as "Blocked."
When testing this, I could use "google.ca" and perform some searches, but navigating to any of the results that followed, returned a blocked page.
Exclusions can be added via "Website Management"
- Leave "Category Override" unspecified
- Apply a "Tag" to the site you wish to allow
- Apply the "Tag" to the "Web Control Policy" with the action "Allow"
Ideally, a firewall or network appliance such as the Sophos XG would be used for this purpose so that the web traffic does not reach the endpoint, to begin with, but this type of configuration may work for you.
The improvements to Web Control will soon make it to General Availability, though we don't have a timeline as to how soon that will be implemented. I recommend checking in on the following forum page to stay up to date on the changes.
- Intercept X Endpoint > Early Access Programs
I will try testing this further on a device enrolled in the GA release and update this thread accordingly with my findings.
It looks like this will work under the GA release version, however, you will first need to make changes from "Global Settings > SSL/TLS decryption of HTTPS websites" to turn on decryption.
Furthermore, the "blocked webpage" text does not get displayed, instead, the web page will fail to load. In the EAP release group, the "Website Blocked" message is displayed.