Bloxx warns on anonymous proxies

The problem, said Scotland-based Bloxx, is that whilst school, college and education site IT managers put web filtering technology in place to protect their younger charges, an increasingly technically aware student population are using anonymous proxies to bypass the controls.

Anonymous proxy sites, Bloxx said, are quickly becoming the most popular and easiest way for students to bypass internet filtering.

Earlier this year, Bloxx announced the results from its annual anonymous proxy security survey which revealed that 90% of educational IT respondents see anonymisers as a security problem.

According to Bloxx, whilst the internet is an exciting and important learning resource that provides a rich source of information and knowledge across the complete education spectrum, it also has a very dark side.

That dark side, could potentially expose students to inappropriate or dangerous content and dramatically increasing security risk, especially when they are able to view any website

The situation is sufficiently bad that a number of UK organisations - notably the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the British Education Communications and Technology Agency - have written consultation papers and prepared toolkits to highlight the risks to students being exposed to violent material, dangerous information and inappropriate content.

Most education facilities, said Eamonn Doyle, Bloxx's CEO, may have an existing internet usage policy and web filtering solution in place but this may not be enough.

"It is imperative that internet access is properly regulated in an education environment. Students are increasingly finding new subversive ways to access web content that is typically blocked or restricted by their education facility's web filter", he said.

Bloxx claims its appliances deliver additional protection over web filters that use lists of proxy sites or basic keyword scoring.

With the rapid creation rate of proxy sites, the company says these techniques on their own are insufficient.

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