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While
the Internet enables global communication,
collaboration and access to data stored
all over the world, it also poses
an array of problems. Are your employees
using the Internet for work or are
they perusing the latest lingerie
catalogue? They may even be doing
something criminal like pirating movies
or behaving outside the legal boundaries
of such regulations as Sarbanes-Oxley
or HIPAA.
Keeping your employees' Web usage
safe and legal is a challenge. Employees
and employers are both entitled to
some protection. Absolute trust is
a thing of the past, but draconian
measures won't work either. You can't
assign someone to watch every employee.
First, develop a clear Acceptable
Internet Use Policy and have it signed
by all your users. That's the "trust"
side of the equation. Next, develop
a workable security procedure to enforce
it.
Under a Watchful Eye
That brings us to the inevitable task
of Web filtering. Nothing else conjures
up images of Big Brother watching
or so sharply divides employees and
managers. You may block and monitor
your children's Web access, but can
or should you do so at work? Regardless
of where you stand on this debate,
the simple fact is that Web filtering
is here to stay.
To monitor Web usage in your organization,
you'll need a good employee Internet
management solution that fits the
growing needs of your environment—something
rich, mature and flexible.
In our opinion, products that claim
to be able to automatically determine
the type of website being accessed
are fraught with issues and lead to
too may false categorisations. The
administrative overhead rules them
out.
We recommend products that download
databases of URL categories onto the
Internet gateway. All website usage
requests are checked against this
database to ensure it fits the policy
defined for that individual.
These databases are maintained and
kept accurate by human staff at the
URL filter supplier.
Bandwidth is also conserved, as pages
that are to be blocked are not downloaded,
unlike some other products that must
download the pages and then analyse
them. This also means speed and end
user experience is not affected.
We have selected two products and
specialised in them that we believe
meet the above criterias.
Websense is the market leader and
the “Rolls Royce” solution
for total bulletproof URL filtering.
Additional features including blocking
downloads of spyware and websites
containing any malicious content with
over 80 categories to choose from.
This complimented with full reporting
and trend analysis means Websense
truly is the best and most comprehensive
product on the market.
WebBlocker is a add-on filter available
on all Watchguard equipment. No per
user licensing and a well maintained
database make this a very attractive
option, even if an existing firewall
is in place.
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