How do I prevent a website being misclassified by Websense?
I work for Websense.
There are ways to directly query the Websense database but it's not something that is generally publicly accessible (unless you have an account and so on).
I will forward this thread to some of my peeps at Websense and I'll report back shortly.
Digging around on their website I found Websense Suggest a URL, which appears to require an account. However, even when you do create a new account; there's nowhere to submit a categorization dispute that I could see!
Per How do I find out how a site is categorized? we should be able to use the Site Lookup and URL Category tools but I think these are for paying websense customers only. I am able to get into "my WebSense" with a new account, but when I try to click the Site Lookup Tool I get a big honking
Sorry, you are unauthorized to access this page.
I also found this on their forums:
I could not replicate this [miscategorized site issue]. However, if you run into this in the future you can always email [email protected] for all categorization-related inquiries and Site Lookup Tool feedback. That will go right to our database operations team.
There's also a Denied access to a web page? which states at the bottom.
What can you do if you feel a Web site has been incorrectly categorized?
If you feel a Web site has been incorrectly categorized, you can also suggest that Websense database researchers investigate a Web site classification by e-mailing [email protected].
And similarly Report miscategorized web sites or suggest new URLs? says:
Problem Description
I identified a miscategorized web site. How do I submit the URL for review?
Resolution
To post a new URL for review or suggest a category change, send an e-mail to [email protected].
The Database operations team reviews URLs and respond to inquiries.
Bottom line: email [email protected]
.
It is a shame there's no way (that I can find) for us to test our websense categorization state from the outside.
I also had my website blocked by Websense, with the reason that is was categorized as "gambling". It's not a gambling site, but it does have social media widgets such as Facebook comments, share buttons, etc... and is built on WordPress.
I signed up for Websense to use the URL lookup tool but also got the: Sorry, you are unauthorized to access this page
message.
After sending Websense an email as to why this was, I got a standard reply which included another tool:
http://csi.websense.com
This tells you which category your website is in and if any threat is detected.