Secure Net monitoring

[Exby]

Hi there - first time poster, longtime subscriber 😊

I'm trying to figure out if there is some way I can monitor, review and moderate sites blocked by secure net. I have my alerts set up and regularly receive notifications  about sites that have been blocked but that seems to be where the service ends. When I go to the app/website I'm simply presented with a tile that says:

That's great and all but it does not provide me with much actionable intelligence - e.g. who, if anybody in my family, is trying to connect to questionable sites.  How am I supposed to demonstrate to my kids to show a little caution when following links with just a random number?

Call me paranoid but I've always been a believer in the principle of 'Trust, but verify'  but without any means of verifying, how am I supposed to trust what net secure is actually doing???

[Jason]

Hi @Exby. When Secure Net Mobile blocks a harmful website over an unencrypted connection (e.g. HTTP) information on this will show in your browser at that moment in time - all threats detected aren't itemised and stored to review at a later date. That being said, you can set age-appropriate content filters to prevent access to potentially harmful content - you can choose to block from the following categories: Adult, Alcohol & Tobacco, Dating, Drugs, Gambling, Games, Hate, Violence & Weapons, Sex Education, Social Media & Chat. When you choose to block a category, it will also block use of any apps that fall into that category.

You'll first need to set up your child's profile by logging into the Secure Net web portal. We'll then send an SMS invite to your child's mobile phone. Once the invite has been accepted, you can then configure advanced parental controls for the child. Once the child has been set up, you can use the Secure Net app to easily add or change controls for that child.

[Exby]

Thanks for the input and for the heads up about the content filters @Jason . But my biggest concern is that I'm being alerted to threats and I don't know what is being blocked. Surely there are logs stored - even for a limited amount of time? Now I don't dispute that net-secure is doing its job, but I find it a little surprising that we're just expected to trust that everything is working as it should. Can you point me in the direction of any technical documentation that covers the processes implemented by Vodafone to detect potential threats?

[Jason · Accepted solution]

When Secure Net blocks a threat, a message is sent with information about the domain/IP address blocked and the reason. The notifications are limited to 2 per day and if there are more than 2 blocks, a third message is sent to advise that the protection continues but no further messages are sent that day. The domains blocked are not currently available in the Threat view, only a total of threats blocked and a breakdown by type.

We are exploring how we can make this view more informative @Exby and the feedback is helpful in order for us to improve the service. We can provide you with record of the threat blocks for your account by raising a SAR request - once submitted, we can then arrange to securely send you this information.
 

[Exby]

Awesome - thank you for the response. That would be super helpful the blocks are almost always appear to be coming from the same IP and occasionally the same domain. I appreciate your SOCs have probably got bigger fish to fry but once I've had a look at the info I'll forward anything of relevance - Thanks once again!