State & Local Government Web Filtering | Municipal Network Security

Government Networks Under Siege

State and local governments are among the most targeted organizations for cyberattacks. Ransomware attacks against municipalities increased by 150% in recent years, with content risk actors specifically targeting government agencies because they operate critical infrastructure, hold sensitive citizen data, and often run on limited IT budgets that leave systems under-protected.

The consequences of a successful attack on government infrastructure extend far beyond financial losses. When a city network goes down, essential services halt: emergency dispatch, water treatment controls, permit processing, court records, and public safety communications all depend on functioning IT systems. The City of Baltimore's 2019 ransomware attack cost over $18 million and disrupted services for weeks.

Web filtering provides a critical first layer of defense for government networks. By blocking access to known malicious domains, restricted content sites, and command-and-control servers at the DNS level, municipalities can prevent the majority of attack vectors before they reach endpoints. Our database of 120 million classified domains, updated in real time, gives government IT teams the protection they need without the complexity they cannot afford.

For city and county IT

One DNS address for town hall, the depot and the library branch

A small municipal IT team can run category filtering for every building without buying a box for each one. We operate the filter for you, so your staff keep the policy and we keep the lists current.

Point the router or firewall at one DNS address at each location.
Give each department its own category switches, from 22 blocking categories.
Search the activity log when an auditor or a council member asks what was blocked.

List of municipal sites in the managed filter dashboard

blocking categories to set per building

120M+

domains your departments can sort by category

DNS setting per router at each site

See the managed filter for municipalities Ask for a one-building pilot Look up a site your staff report

Government Compliance & Standards

Meet federal, state, and local regulatory requirements with comprehensive web filtering

CJIS Security Policy

Law enforcement agencies accessing FBI Criminal Justice Information Services data must meet strict CJIS requirements. Our web filtering provides the network access controls and audit logging necessary for CJIS compliance, ensuring that systems with access to criminal justice data are protected from malicious web content.

NIST Cybersecurity Framework

Align your municipal cybersecurity posture with NIST CSF guidelines. Web filtering supports the Protect and Detect functions by controlling access to external resources and identifying potentially malicious network activity. Our reporting maps directly to NIST CSF categories for straightforward compliance documentation.

State Privacy Laws

State-level privacy regulations like CCPA, SHIELD Act, and others require governments to implement reasonable security measures for citizen data. Web filtering demonstrates proactive content filtering and provides the audit trail documentation that state attorneys general look for during compliance reviews.

Public WiFi Obligations

Government buildings, parks, transit systems, and community centers offering public WiFi have a duty to provide safe access. Content filtering on public networks blocks inappropriate material, protects minors, prevents illegal activity, and reduces the municipality's liability exposure from network misuse. School districts, often the largest local government entities, need web filtering built specifically for K-12 school districts on top of these baseline protections.

Multi-Department Policy Management

Government agencies have diverse needs across departments. The police department requires access to different resources than the parks department. Court systems have different security requirements than the public library. Our platform supports granular, department-level policies that let each agency access what they need while maintaining a unified security posture.

Central IT teams get a single dashboard view across all departments, with the ability to set baseline security policies that apply universally while delegating category-specific exceptions to department managers. This hybrid approach respects departmental autonomy while ensuring no agency falls below the minimum security threshold.

Protecting the Municipal Network

Comprehensive coverage for every component of government IT infrastructure

City Hall Networks

Administrative offices

Police & Emergency

CJIS-compliant filtering

Fire Departments

Station & mobile units

Public Libraries

CIPA-compliant access

Utilities & Water

SCADA network protection

Public Transit

Passenger WiFi filtering

Courts & Legal

Sensitive case data

Parks & Recreation

Public facility WiFi

Public Health

Patient data protection

School Districts

Student safety & CIPA

Public Works

Field crew devices

Elections Office

Critical infrastructure

Unified Security, Distributed Control

Municipal networks often span dozens of physical locations connected by wide-area networks. Our DNS-based filtering protects every location from a single policy engine without requiring hardware appliances at each site. Whether a government employee is at city hall, a remote fire station, or working from home, the same filtering policies protect their connection.

For air-gapped or high-security networks like election systems and SCADA controllers, we offer on-premise database deployment. The full 120 million domain classification database runs on your infrastructure with no external network dependencies, meeting the most stringent isolation requirements.

Budget-conscious municipalities benefit from our transparent pricing model with no per-seat fees. Whether your government serves 5,000 residents or 500,000, predictable annual costs make it easy to include web filtering in your IT budget without surprises.

Government Use Cases

How state and local governments use web filtering to protect their networks and citizens

Mid-Size City Municipal Network

A city of 150,000 residents with 1,200 municipal employees deploys DNS-based filtering across all 35 government buildings. The police department has CJIS-compliant strict policies, while parks and recreation facilities offer filtered public WiFi. Central IT manages all policies from a single dashboard, with department heads able to request category exceptions through an approval workflow. In the first year, the system blocked over 50,000 unsafe content attempts.

County Government Network

A rural county government serves 12 townships from a central IT department with limited staff. They implement our filtering to provide baseline security across all county offices without needing a dedicated security team. Pre-built government policy templates deploy in minutes. The county sheriff's office meets CJIS requirements, and the county library system satisfies CIPA compliance, all from the same platform.

State Agency IT Consolidation

A state government consolidating IT services across 30 agencies uses our API to build a centralized web filtering layer into their shared services platform. Each agency retains its own policy profile while the state CISO maintains visibility across all agencies. The API integrates with the state's existing SIEM platform, feeding domain classification data into their security operations center for real-time content risk correlation.

Smart City Public WiFi

A city deploying free public WiFi across downtown, public transit, and community centers uses our filtering to ensure safe and appropriate access for all users, including minors. Content categories like adult material, gambling, and weapons are blocked by default. The city avoids liability from network misuse while providing a valuable community service. Usage reports help justify continued investment in public connectivity.

150%

Increase in Municipal Ransomware

$18M+

Baltimore Ransomware Cost

120M

Domains Classified

Content Categories

Guest network lookups

How popular sites sort on a guest network

Visitors to a city building ask for the same few services again and again. Each one carries a category, so you decide per category instead of typing in domains.

Site a visitor opens	What our data stores
facebook.com	Social Networking
youtube.com	Streaming Media, Social Networking
tiktok.com	Social Networking, Streaming Media
dropbox.com	Cloud Storage / File Hosting, Web-based Applications
usa.gov	Government & Legal

Check how another address is filed

Securing Public WiFi Networks

Government-provided public WiFi is increasingly seen as essential infrastructure. Libraries, community centers, public transit, and downtown areas offer free internet access to residents and visitors. However, unfiltered public networks expose the municipality to legal liability and create opportunities for misuse that can damage public trust.

Our web filtering provides content-appropriate access on public networks without requiring user authentication or registration. When a citizen connects to city WiFi, the filtering is transparent and automatic. Appropriate content loads normally, while harmful or inappropriate material is blocked with a clean, branded page explaining the municipality's acceptable use policy.

For public networks used by minors in libraries and community centers, our CIPA-compliant filtering templates satisfy the Children's Internet Protection Act requirements necessary to receive E-Rate funding. These templates are regularly updated to reflect current CIPA guidance and FCC interpretations.

Running the filter yourself or letting us run it

For a city with a handful of IT staff, the difference shows up in routine work.

Task	Do it in house	Managed DNS filter
Category list upkeep	Someone must source and update the lists	Built on the database behind 120M+ categorized domains
Rolling out to a new building	Hardware or software per location	One DNS address on the router or firewall
Different rules per department	Separate policies to build and track	Category switches per site, with allow and block lists on top
Staff who need an exception	Edit the policy by hand and remember to undo it	PIN bypass for 15, 30 or 60 minutes, logged, then reverts
Laptops used in the field	Rules stop at the office door	Private encrypted link keeps the same rules away from the network
Answering an audit request	Collect logs from several devices	Searchable activity and CSV exports in one dashboard

Review the filter built for local government Start with the library branch as a pilot

Government Web Filtering FAQ

Common questions from state and local government IT teams

Is your solution available through government procurement channels?

Yes. Our service is available through standard government procurement processes including purchase orders, cooperative purchasing agreements, and we accept government credit cards. We understand that government procurement cycles can be lengthy, and our sales team is experienced in working with municipal purchasing departments, RFP processes, and budget cycles.

Can you meet CJIS security requirements?

Yes. For law enforcement agencies, we offer deployment options that satisfy CJIS Security Policy requirements including encryption in transit and at rest, access controls, audit logging, and personnel security screening. Our on-premise deployment option ensures that all domain classification data stays within your CJIS-compliant network boundary.

How do you handle First Amendment considerations on government networks?

Government web filtering must balance security with constitutional protections. Our platform blocks web-based risks (unsafe content, ransomware) by default, which raises no First Amendment issues. For content-based filtering on public networks, we provide clear categorization that allows governments to make informed policy decisions. Our block pages include easy-to-use override request mechanisms that satisfy due process requirements.

Can different departments have different filtering policies?

Absolutely. Our platform supports unlimited policy groups. You can create distinct policies for law enforcement, administrative offices, public-facing WiFi, utilities, and any other department. Each policy can have different blocked categories, different time-based rules, and different exception handling. Central IT retains oversight of all policies while department managers can adjust their group's settings within defined parameters.

What happens if your service goes down?

Our DNS infrastructure is distributed globally with a 99.99% uptime SLA. In the unlikely event of a service disruption, DNS queries automatically fail open, meaning internet access continues unfiltered rather than being blocked entirely. For organizations that prefer fail-closed behavior, our on-premise deployment eliminates dependency on external services entirely.

Web Filtering for State & Local Government

We run the web filter for your library or school