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I have a web site which lists bicycle events in the region, and have got a report from user which gets following error when trying to access it using company WiFi:

Web Page Blocked Access to the web page you were trying to visit has been blocked in accordance with company policy. Please contact your system administrator if you believe this is in error.

User: 192.168.x.x

URL: example.com/

Category: weapons

Now, the user is working in big company and while he has contacted its IT about the issue, it is still unresolved after several months. Searching the web finds similar issues with exact same wording (usually in public wireless settings), but no indication what "blacklist" they are using.

Problem is this is obviously mis-categorized (it should be Category: "recreation" or "sports" or something like that), but there is no info who provides categorization.

Apart from getting the user to try to force the issue with company IT (which I guess does not take this a priority, to say the least), I was hoping for alternate ways:

  1. Finding WHAT tool/company/blacklist exactly is creating those categories, and directly contacting them or finding their web form or something to report miscategorisation. Does anybody recognize this exact pattern or knows where to check? Unfortunatly it does not contain any name or logo, as seen in this page capture from iPad:

    enter image description here

    (If this answer is correct, it does not seem to be Forcepoint/Websense category, as it seems to put it in "Business & Economy", not "Weapons". Any other ideas?)

  2. Finding (and fixing) what on the website might trigger such a categorization? All content on site is manually curated and related to bicycle rides only, website should be carefully secured IMHO, and online scan sites report no malware or other issues with the site.

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1 Answer 1

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This message looks to me like it comes from Symantic's Web Gateway. Here is a page where somebody with the same error message points the finger at Symantec. Symantec has a URL filtering categories page that lists the category your website has been mis-assigned:

Weapons (plus Military) -- This category contains Web sites from military organizations/companies and sites about weapons of any type.

Symantec has a form on their website where you can request a site review. Use the provided fields to tell them about your website and what categories it should be in.

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  • This seems to be correct answer, I've reported there and few weeks later the problem is gone!
    – Matija Nalis
    Jul 5, 2018 at 11:43
  • Does it work if we add SSL?
    – Asil ARSLAN
    Feb 25, 2020 at 8:19
  • Link is broken... I'm trying this in the meantime - sitereview.symantec.com
    – Nick Grealy
    Jun 8, 2021 at 0:13
  • Update: the sitereview link (above) worked (<24hrs turnaround too!).
    – Nick Grealy
    Jun 9, 2021 at 0:15
  • 1
    @NickGrealy thank you for the updated link, I put it into the answer.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Jun 9, 2021 at 8:38

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