Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Websense doesn't break TLS or SSL or PKI. Websense abuses an organizations control over their own workstations to conduct a 'mitm' or 'proxy' of the TLS connection. It does that in a fairly straight forward manner.

Websense is used in organizations that distribute their own root ca key to the workstations behind it. The Websense machine is then given that root ca key and allowed to generate dynamic certs with it, so that a workstation with your organizational CA trusts them, but nobody on the regular inter webs will.

It's a really, really shitty way to do things, and effectively violates the trust of every user on your corporate network, but hey, they signed an agreement.




Thank you for the information.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: