How Web Filtering Protects Your Enterprise From Offensive Material
Posted on Mon, Mar 22, 2010
Not too long ago, offensive material arrived in a "plain, brown wrapper," its contents known only to sender and recipient, and only those two parties were impacted by what was inside the wrapping.
Today, not only are there more types of objectionable material than ever before, but the ubiquity of the internet facilitates more channels to deliver more contraband to more people, more quickly, than ever imagined.
Millennia ago, those with malicious intent hid inside really large gifts (think Trojan Horse), then attacked their enemies in the middle of the night. Nowadays, well, malice still arrives in a Trojan horse, it's just a much smaller, and far more potent, weapon.
There was even a time when digging a trench around the castle and filling it with water was sufficient to protect all the master's assets.
But today's Web-engaged enterprises face assaults from a much broader geography than the perimeter of the castle grounds-the entire planet.
And so, the need to safeguard the enterprise via Web filters-whether to combat phishing or pharming attacks, stem malware, or prevent objectionable material that puts the organization at risk civilly, criminally, or both, from crossing your digital threshold grows more pressing each day.
Consider this when contemplating Web filtering software and tools:
Billions of Web pages pose potentially billions of threats to be sorted through every time someone in the organization logs on to a PC or workstation;
The diversity of these pages, and the way users and groups interact with them, are essentially limitless; still, too many restrictions can constrain productivity and demoralize your workforce.
The Web landscape changes; Constantly. Keeping a current database is critical.
Your own landscape is challenging; servicing remote sites, limited budgets, and resources, no shortage of regulatory compliance to abide by.
Nothing says, "We don't trust you," like a monitor from Big Brother
Nothing sours a relationship-any kind of relationship-faster than a lack of trust.
So, when, as is sometimes the case, employees take offense that their organization is considering, or implementing, a Web filtering system, a little education is in order.
The workplace is not home. The public school or library is not home. Every user has the potential to expose countless others to harmful materials; shareholders rightfully expect their investments will not serve as conduits for clandestine or illegal pursuits.
Web filtering software, properly deployed and judiciously managed, is the modern-day moat keeping the castle-the enterprise-safe from today's threats.
| To learn more about protecting your corporate networks from attacks and security breaches, visit CBE Technologies' Security Portal to find out how CBE Technologies' can help you procure and monitor a security system that enables protected business communications and high security, without compromising performance. |