System and method for controlling access to internet sites

• US 20040015586A1
• Filed: 07/08/2003
• Published: 01/22/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Forcepoint LLC
• Original Assignee: Forcepoint LLC
• Inventors: Carrington, John, Oei, David, Hegli, Ronald
• Granted Patent: US 8,533,349 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A method and system for providing flexible access to Internet sites is described. The system includes a database of Internet sites that have been categorized so that the system determines the category of information that a user is accessing on the Internet. The system is also programmed so users are only allowed to access sites within a particular category a limited number of times. Moreover, users can requested a postponed access, wherein the site they are requesting is stored to a server, and available to the user at a later time. In addition, if a user chooses to access a site that is within certain predefined categories, they are presented with the option of retrieving the page, but notified that their access will be logged to a file.

Claims

1. A method of controlling user access to Internet sites, comprising:

determining a content category of an Internet site that a user is accessing;

providing a timer;

incrementing said timer with time spent accessing said content category by said user; and

blocking said user from accessing Internet sites in said content category when said timer reaches a predetermined level.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said predetermined level is thirty minutes.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said predetermined level is one hour.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising periodically resetting said timer.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said timer is reset every 24 hours.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a second content category of an Internet site that said user is accessing;

establishing a second timer;

incrementing said second timer with time spent accessing said second content category by said user; and

blocking said user from accessing Internet sites in said second content category when said second timer reaches a second predetermined level.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing said user to bypass said blocking, wherein said access is reported to a network administrator.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising caching Internet sites in said content category that are requested by said user after said timer reaches said predetermined level, wherein said user may access said cached Internet sites after a predetermined time.

9. A method of rating Internet sites comprising:

analyzing an Internet site;

determining, based on said act of analyzing, a site score for a content category;

relating said Internet site with said content category if said site score is greater than a first predetermined score;

evaluating said Internet site by human review if said site score is less than said first predetermined score, wherein said human determines if said Internet site should be in said content category. (NOTE;

Add dependant claim re second predetermined score)

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising presenting a uniform resource locator (URL) for viewing by said human if said site score is less than said first predetermined score.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the act of evaluating said Internet site comprises evaluating said Internet site by human review if said site score is greater than a second predetermined score and less than said first predetermined score.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising presenting a uniform resource locator (URL) for viewing by said human if said site score is greater than said second predetermined score and less than said first predetermined score.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein said act of determining further comprises scoring said Internet site according to predefined scores established for adjacent words on said Internet site.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein said act of determining further comprises:

establishing a word combination score for a plurality of word combinations on said Internet site according to predefined scores established for respective word combinations;

summing at least some of said plurality of word combination scores corresponding to at least some of said plurality of word combinations so as to create a relevance score; and

normalizing said relevance score so as to create said site score.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said act of normalizing further comprises:

dividing said relevance score by a total number of words on said Internet site.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein said act of normalizing further comprises:

dividing said relevance score by a number of words used in creating said relevance score.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein said act of analyzing comprises analyzing a predetermined number of words on said Internet site.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said predetermined number is one of 100, 250, 500, and 1000.

19. A system for rating Internet sites comprising:

means for determining a content category of an Internet site that a user is accessing;

means for providing a timer;

means for incrementing said timer with time spent accessing said content category by said user; and

means for blocking said user from accessing Internet sites in said content category after said timer reaches a predetermined level.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising means for caching any Internet sites requested by said user after said timer reaches said predetermined level, wherein said user may access said cached Internet sites after a predetermined time.

21. A method of scoring a web page based on content, the method comprising:

providing a database of scores associated with word combinations, wherein said word combinations comprise two or more words;

accessing a web site, wherein said web site comprises a plurality of N words;

grouping ones of said plurality of N words with others of the remaining N- 1 words on said website; and

determining a page score based on association of said word groupings to word combinations in said database of scores.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said grouping and determining further comprise:

(a) providing a variable X=1 and a variable A=1;

(b) creating a tuple comprising an identifier of word A and word A+X;

(c) incrementing a page score by a score associated with said tuple if said tuple is present in said database of scores;

(d) incrementing X if (A+X)<

N;

(e) incrementing A and setting X=1 if (A+X)=N;

(f) determining that said page score is a final page score if A=N; and

(g) returning to step (d) if A<

N.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said identifier comprises a number associated with said word A.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein said plurality of N words comprises less than all of the words displayed on said web page.