Creating and applying censor policies

Create and manage filtering policies by assigning actions to matched content, filters for matching types of message content, time periods for limiting the time of day during which filtering policies are enforced and custom content categories for inclusion in filters. However, if you are a new customer you might not be able to use this function, see Message Censor Redundancy.

You can create and deploy policies that accept, modify, block, or log content in messages.

To configure a message censor policy, you need to:

  • Configure and deploy a policy with a filter, an action, a time period and level of severity.
  • Configure filters that classify messages by their textual content.
  • Configure time periods during which policies are applied.
  • Define custom categories to cater for situations not covered by the default Smoothwall phrase lists.

Procedure

  1. On the SERVICES menu, under the Message censor submenu, click Policies.
  2. Under the Service settings section, choose the relevant service for this message censor policy.
    • IM proxy incoming — Applies the policy to incoming instant message content.
    • IM proxy outgoing — Applies the policy to outgoing instant message content.
  3. Click Select to view the policy in the Policy settings section.
  4. Under the Policy settings section, choose the Filter, Time period, Action, Log severity level and Group to use for the policy. For Action, select from: 
    • Block - Content matched by the filter is discarded.
    • Censor - Content matched by the filter is masked but the message is delivered to its destination.
    • Categorize - Content matched by the filter is allowed and logged.
    • Allow - Content matched by the filter is allowed and isn't processed by any other filters.
  5. Enter an optional descriptive Comment. New policies are Enabled by default.
  6. Click Add, and at the top of the page, click Restart to apply the policy. The Smoothwall applies the policy and adds it to Current policies.

Follow-up tasks

  • You need to turn on message censor filtering, see Censoring and storing web form content.
  • To edit a policy:
    1. Under the Current policies section, select the policy and click Edit.
    2. Edit the settings and click Add to save your changes.
    3. At the top of the page, click Restart to apply the changes.
  • To delete a policy:
    1. Under the Current policies section, select the policy or policies and click Remove.
    2. At the top of the page, click Restart to apply the changes.