The Enterprise Security team enabled the Internet firewall to block specific known categories of dangerous websites beginning September 2017. If anyone is wondering why a website is being blocked look at the “Category” field on the block page to find out how the website is classified.
Category definitions for blocked content
Command and Control: URLs and domains used by malware or compromised systems to surreptitiously communicate with an attacker’s remote server to receive malicious commands or exfiltrate data.
Malware: Sites containing malicious content, executables, scripts, viruses, trojans, and code.
Not Resolved: Indicates that the website was not found in the local URL filtering database and the firewall was unable to connect to the cloud database to check the category.
Parked: URLs which host limited content or click-through ads which may generate revenue for the host entity but generally do not contain content that is useful to the end user and has the potential to contain malicious content.
Phishing: Seemingly reputable sites that harvest personal information from its users via phishing or pharming
If you are certain that a site that has been improperly categorized or the issue that caused it to be placed in one of these categories has been resolved a ticket will need to be created and assigned to the Enterprise Security team. Please include all of the information on the block page, the website function/purpose, and why it should be reclassified. This happens most often when a website is new or recently changed. The request to change the category of a website can take up to 1 business day to get a response back from the vendor once we submit it.
For additional information see Web Page Blocked in Accordance with University Policy