Feature Control Rules

Before reading this section, make sure you're familiar with the basic Rules Engine Concepts.

Feature Control Rules work alongside Filter Rules, and enable you to enforce control over third-party web services such as search engines, YouTube and Google Apps. Feature Control Rules are managed centrally through your Web Security dashboard, but are enforced by agents (either through a network gateway or via an endpoint agent on the user's device). Unlike Filter Rules, Feature Control Rules do not have Actions. They do, however, have Conditions and Matches just like Filter Rules.

Managing Feature Control Rules

To create a new Filter Control Rule, or to view or edit the Rules currently active on your account, visit your USS Dashboard, and click Web Security -> Feature Controls.

The Feature Controls screen lists all the Filter Control Rules currently available for your USS Account.

To see the other Rules in place for your account, click Filter Rules.
If you chose a template, such as the Baseline Template, during the initial setup of your USS Account, the Feature Controls screen will have several pre-generated Rules in place already.

Rules are listed on the Feature Controls screen in the order that they will be triggered (from top to bottom).

Remember, a Rule will only be triggered if it is set to be Active. Double-click an inactive Rule to set it to Active.

Changing Priority order

You can easily change the order in which your Rules are processed. Just left-click a Rule on the Feature Control screen, and drag-and-drop to change its position.

Remember, your Rules will always be processed in order, from top to bottom. So, the Rule with Priority 1 will be processed first.

Creating a new Feature Control Rule

To create a new Rule, click the button (in the top right corner). Give the Rule a friendly name, and then choose a Priority. The Priority dictates where the Rule should be placed in your Policy Rule table.

You can adjust all of these values at any time, so if you're not sure what to choose you can simply accept the defaults for now.

Editing Feature Control Rules

To edit a Rule, click the button next to the Rule you want to edit on the Feature Control screen.

You can also edit a Rule by double-clicking the Rule itself.

Editing a Rule will open the Rule Properties screen for that Rule. This screen shows in detail the Conditions and Matches that make up the Rule.

Remember, unlike Filter Rules, Feature Control Rules do not have an Actions column.

Details

You can edit the basic settings for the Rule in the details pane, at the top left of the Rule Properties screen.

Name: The friendly name for this Rule.

If the Rule triggers the display of a blocked template, the friendly name of the Rule will be shown to your users.

Description: A short description of the Rule. This text is optional, but can help to easily identify and differentiate Rules throughout the Web Security product.

Active: A check-mark indicates that this Rule is currently active. If the Active box is unchecked, the Rule is not currently active and will have no effect on web traffic. Inactive Rules will still be listed on the Feature Controls screen.

Selected Conditions

The Selected Conditions panel specifies the conditions that must be true in order for the Rule to trigger.

In order for a Rule to be triggered, all Conditions in the Selected Conditions column must be true. The Rule will not be triggered if only some of the Conditions are matched.

You can add a new Condition by simply dragging the relevant icon from the Conditions panel to the Selected Conditions column.

For example, to restrict a Rule to trigger only during specific hours in the day, drag the Time icon to the Selected Conditions column.
  • Click to modify an existing Condition.
  • ​Click to toggle the logic used to match the Condition - either "must match" or "must not match".
  • Click to remove a Condition from the Selected Conditions column.
You can find a detailed description of all Conditions and their effects in Rules Engine Concepts.

Selected Controls

The Selected Controls column allows you to specify what actions should be taken if the Selected Conditions column is triggered for this Rule.

To choose a Control, drag an icon from the Controls panel to the Selected Controls column.

Click to remove an Action from the Selected Actions column.

You can find a detailed description of all Controls and their effects in Rules Engine Concepts.

How did we do?