Filtering Mandates

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Many countries worldwide now mandate that categories, apps and services are filtered on the Service Providers network. Some examples are:

Italy, South Korea and Australia have either banned DeepSeek or banned it for certain users such as Federal Employees

Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/these-nations-are-banning-deepseek-ai-heres-why/

Lots of countries, including the UK, have court orders blocking certain streaming sites. An example is:

https://marketech-apac.com/singapore-high-court-orders-blocking-of-22-pirate-sites-70-domains/#:~:text=Singapore%20–%20Singapore’s%20High%20Court%20has,crackdown%20on%20illegal%20streaming%20sites.

These examples are not isolated examples and lots of countries have mandates to block a number of sites or applications.

How can a block be implemented?

There is no perfect way to block access to some of these apps or services. The most determined user will find a way via VPN’s anonymizers, roaming or other methods.

Secure64 is often asked about this and we have various solutions.

The user accesses the site via the IP address.

This is not a foolproof method by any means as nearly all sites contain domain name entries to elements of the page or the full site/page. Even if you access the page via its IP address (If you can), it is extremely likely that elements wont load due to the domain name being present. Some sites as an example Youtube can never be accessed via its IP address

The user accesses the site via a VPN

Secure64 LineGuard has a number of VPN services in the platform and you can disable users from using these VPN’s

The user accesses the site via an anonymizer i.e. Google Translate

Again, we understand how this works and have techniques to block access to this type of service.

Blocking AI Apps

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There has been much discussion about AI recently, and various governments are banning certain services. Recently there have been a series of Deepseek bans in various countries. The method is to either ban users from using the service, such as Australian federal employees, or remove the app from the relevant store, as Italy has done.

Example: https://www.business-standard.com/technology/tech-news/us-congress-bans-deepseek-ai-security-risks-125020101088_1.html

https://www.silicon.co.uk/cloud/ai/italy-blocks-deepseek-over-data-concernsdeepseek-italy-block-597854

Removing the app from the relevant store is not a foolproof method. When TikTok was banned, devices with the previously installed app were traded online for huge costs, way above the normal value because the app was still present, and the service could be accessed. Secure64 LineGuard deployed in a network would have stopped these devices from accessing TikTok while the ban was in place.

Firewall vendors also suggest that businesses block access by blocking the domain. This is a good idea, but what happens when the AI vendor changes the domain? What happens when the user is off the corporate network on open Wi-Fi? 

Using a firewall is not a long-term solution as it doesn’t scale, impacts performance, and critically doesn’t solve the off-net issue.

While manually changing firewall rules is possible, it requires a lot of work by the system administrator, and if you have multiple firewalls, you might have to perform the change multiple times.

Secure64 with LineGuard has a cloud-based solution that operates across the globe. We can block Deepseek and many other apps and content. To enable instant blocking, click a radio button for the app or category. With our client app, we can ensure that the app is blocked even when users are off the network. This simple app is always on and can only be turned off with a PIN or the admin’s approval. With the always up-to-date feeds, if the domains change, we block the new domains.

This lessens the overhead for network admins, as you just have to click the box to block the app. You can also select a whole category, such as Social Media, Firearms, Alcohol, malware, phishing, Ransomware, etc.

LineGuard is a content control platform. You select the category to block, such as AI, and we block all the ones we recognize. If new ones appear, we add them to the category or app list.

Interestingly, we use our own AI to detect and categorize new sites, reducing the time it takes for a service to appear blocked. This process is rapid and offers protection quickly. LineGuard AI blocking includes multiple AI engines, including Deepseek and ChatGPT, and is available now.

To learn more about Secure64 LineGuard, contact sales@secure64.com