Content Filtering Categories

[blueharbortech]

Hey Guys,

I called support and checked the web and couldn't find an up-to-date and accurate list. Here are the categories available as of 1/24/18 below. Hope it helps someone! Also, curious what categories people find themselves configuring within their client's networks. Cheers!

Abortion

Abused Drugs

Adult and Pornography

Alcohol and Tobacco

Auctions

Bot Nets

Cheating (Academic)

Computer and Internet Info

Computer and Internet Security

Confirmed SPAM Sources

Content Delivery Networks

Cult and Occult

Dating

Dynamically Generated Content

Educational Institutions

Entertainment and Arts

Fashion and Beauty

Financial Services

Gambling

Games

Government

Gross

Hacking

Hate and Racism

Health and Medicine

Home and Garden

Hunting and Fishing

Illegal

Image and Video Search

Individual Stock Advice and Tools

Internet Communications

Internet Portals

Job Search

Keyloggers and Monitoring

Kids

Legal

Local Information

Malware Sites

Marijuana

Military

Motor Vehicles

Music

News and Media

Nudity

Online Greeting cards

Open HTTP Proxies

Parked Domains

Pay to Surf

Peer to Peer

Personal Storage

Personal sites and Blogs

Philosophy and Political Advocacy

Phishing and Other Frauds

Proxy Avoidance and Anonymizers

Questionable

Real Estate

Recreation and Hobbies

Reference and Research

Religion

SPAM URLs

Search Engines

Sex Education

Shareware and Freeware

Shopping

Social Networking

Society

Sports

Spyware and Adware

Streaming Media

Swimsuits & Intimate Apparel

Training and Tools

Translation

Travel

Unconfirmed SPAM Sources

Violence

Weapons

Web Advertisements

Web Hosting 

Web based email

[BlakeRichardson]

Nice, I normally just block the usual porn, hacking malware.

[PhilipDAth]

http://www.brightcloud.com/tools/change-request-url-categorization.php#catdescription

[steverinoCT]

@PhilipDAth

Hi, I am currently researching categories to provide CIPA conformance for a school. What relevance is your link to BrightCloud-- is that where Meraki gets their input? That would be a handy site, if so.

Update: actually read more on the site. That's an interesting service. In Cisco-land Umbrella does pretty much the same thing, no?

[PhilipDAth]

Meraki use Brightcloud.  I'm not sure who Umbrella use.

It is possible Meraki might use Umbrella in the future ... who knows.

[MerakiDave]

The "top 10 list" for most of my own customers are usually these (give or take a few):

Adult and Pornography

Bot Nets

Confirmed SPAM Sources

Malware Sites

Nudity

Peer to Peer

Phishing and Other Frauds

Proxy Avoidance and Anonymizers

SPAM URLs

Spyware and Adware

These 10 seem to be a fairly common theme, will have you very well covered in most content filtering situations, and only tend to generate the occasional false positive.  I also have many K12 customers who get more restrictive for obvious reasons and start adding additional categories like Gambling, Drugs, Hate and Racism, etc.

[Maicon_Vieira]

---

@MerakiDavewrote:

The "top 10 list" for most of my own customers are usually these (give or take a few):

Adult and Pornography

Bot Nets

Confirmed SPAM Sources

Malware Sites

Nudity

Peer to Peer

Phishing and Other Frauds

Proxy Avoidance and Anonymizers

SPAM URLs

Spyware and Adware

These 10 seem to be a fairly common theme, will have you very well covered in most content filtering situations, and only tend to generate the occasional false positive.  I also have many K12 customers who get more restrictive for obvious reasons and start adding additional categories like Gambling, Drugs, Hate and Racism, etc.

---

I guess my top 10 is totally diferent

Computer and Internet Info

User-defined Blacklist

Computer and Internet Security

Personal Sites and Blogs

Search Engines

Web Advertisement

Shareware and Freeware

Financial Services

Internet Portals

Content Delivery Network

We do block all categorys and some blacklist pattern too

[Robamat]

Just went though this list and can confirm that this is corect as of 2nd Sep 2019

[Robthesoundguy]

Just checked, confirmed accurate as of 1/27/2020.

[HScar]

Is there any way to block domains that aren't categorized?

[PhilipDAth]

Just add it to the blocked URL list.

https://documentation.meraki.com/MX/Content_Filtering_and_Threat_Protection/Content_Filtering#Patter... 

[HScar]

Sorry I didn’t make that more clear. I mean block ALL websites that don’t return a category. 

[PhilipDAth]

I don't think so.

[tyoung]

Great question.  Some content filtering vendors have an "uncategorized" or "unknown" category.  There may be a reason Meraki has not added that category, e.g. too many false positives.  With regard to DGAs and instant malware sites, I think this would be a good solution.

Also, Brightcloud does not define the category Open HTTP Proxies.  I ask because I want to know if it is something I should block similar to Proxy Avoidance and Anonymizers.

[nlacey-tepeyac]

Does anyone know if this is still the case? In the past 2 months I have seen at least 3 phishing attempts using domains that were registered within 7 days. 

[blueharbortech]

Hi Guys,

My team and I just checked the categories again and I can confirm that the categories that I posted on 1/24/2018 are still active and available to use with your Cisco Meraki equipment.

[ddrury_nethope]

Just checked and this list is still valid as of 3 May 2021

[CptnCrnch]

I really hope Meraki will switch to using the Talos database (as everything else within the Cisco universe does). Way better accuracy and much more to „see“.