Block Pages and SSL Inspection

With the BCS subscription and DNS Filtering, when Barracuda Content Shield blocks access to a website due to configured policy, in most cases it presents the user a block page with a message that the website is being blocked. The only cases in which the user will not get a block page are:

• The first time a browser is blocked, that browser may show a certificate warning rather than a block page. If the browser allows accepting the certificate, the user will then continue on to get a block page and will not get a certificate warning from that site in the future.

• When the HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) protocol is used by a website.

SSL inspection is applied automatically, in some cases, by the Barracuda Content Shield Suite with BCS Plus subscriptions when you have installed the suite (agents) on endpoint machines, and is based on policy you define. There is no need to deploy certificates or configure complicated SSL inspection settings. SSL Inspection is not applied with DNS Filtering.

To configure your block page, go to the Block Page page of the web interface and choose the Block Page Template to use:

• Barracuda Default – Click if you are satisfied with the Barracuda default block message layout, but want to customize the text in the WYSIWYG text box. You can optionally add the blocked domain and time of the violation, as described in the table below.
   

• Custom HTML – Click if you want greater flexibility to customize the message using HTML. For example, this option can be used to change the color of the text and/or backgrounds. You can optionally add the blocked domain and time of the violation, as described in the table below.

Use the text box in the block page layout to edit the block text message. The Special Values box on the right of the web interface page shows dynamic values you can add to the message to enhance the block page content:

Click Preview for either option to view the block page as will be seen by the end user.