After a recent breach, an organization determined that phishing was used to gain initial access...

URL conditions in access control rules allow you to limit the websites that users on your network can access. This feature is called URL filtering. There are two ways you can use access control to specify URLs you want to block (or, conversely, allow):

– With any license, you can manually specify individual URLs, groups of URLs, and URL lists and feeds to achieve granular, custom control over web traffic.

– With a URL Filtering license, you can also control access to websites based on the URL’s general

classification, or category, and risk level, or reputation. The system displays this category and reputation data in connection logs, intrusion events, and application details.

Using category and reputation data also simplifies policy creation and administration. It grants you assurance that the system will control web traffic as expected. Finally, because Cisco’s threat intelligence is continually updated with new URLs, as well as new categories and risks for existing URLs, you can ensure that the system uses up-to-date information to filter requested URLs. Malicious sites that represent security threats such as malware, spam, botnets, and phishing may appear and disappear faster than you can update and deploy new policies.