 High
Performance Content Filtering
The Internet has become a valuable and necessary tool for businesses
and organizations around the world. With its growth and ubiquity,
the Internet has also become a means for completing business transactions
quickly and efficiently. Additionally, the Internet is an invaluable
resource for gathering information and researching virtually any
topic.
However, a drawback to providing such powerful access to employees
is the potential for abuse of the Internet. This abuse takes many
forms including downloading stolen information (MP3 files, for example),
accessing pornographic Web sites, shopping sites, gambling sites,
and so on. Additionally, there’s also the aspect of employees simply
spending too much time surfing the Internet on general interest
sites when they should be working. Data from Websense Inc. indicates
that Internet misuse costs American corporations more than $85 billion
annually in lost productivity – an increase of 35 percent since
2001.
With these challenges, organizations around the world require
a content filtering solution to control where and when employees
access the Internet. Such a solution enables companies to remain
productive while avoiding the perils of unlimited and unrestricted
Web surfing by their employees.
Benefits of Content Filtering:
Content filtering is the process of limiting a user’s Web
site access by associating a policy with a specific URL or a
topic category. To be effective, the content filtering solution
must contain a comprehensive and global list of Web sites that
can be selected for blocking by a security administrator.
Because the Internet is ever changing, effective content
filtering must also be able to periodically download updates
from a master database. Having periodic updates will allow a
corporate policy to automatically incorporate any new or updated
sites as they are introduced to the Internet. Content filtering
provides immediate and significant benefits for an enterprise
including:
- Boosting employee productivity
- Reducing legal liabilities
- Enforcing existing acceptable use policies
- Conserving network bandwidth
Boosting Employee Productivity:
Companies are looking for ways to ensure that the tools they
provide their employees will result in greater productivity
and not the reverse. Companies need their employees to focus
on the work at hand and not waste valuable time surfing sites
that don’t help them get their work done. This has become even
more critical in today’s economic climate which has forced companies
to lay off workers, thus requiring fewer employees to deliver
greater productivity to the bottom line.
A content filtering policy defined by software controls can
limit employees to Web surfing only at the lunch hour or to
non-work hours, for example. It can limit employees to only
access sites that are applicable to their work needs during
normal business hours. This is known as an acceptable use policy.
Reducing Legal Liabilities:
Companies must be vigilant in avoiding lawsuits that can
arise when an employee accesses and circulates inappropriate
or pornographic content. Many companies have trusted their staff
with unfettered access to the Internet, only to be hit with
settlement pats to employees who received sexually explicit
e-mails or were otherwise harassed via the company’s own computer
equipment. Additionally, there are documented cases of music
recording industry companies suing corporations for allowing
unlicensed fileswapping of popular music to occur over company
resources. Content filtering (with strict enforcement for violation)
can help a company minimize their legal liabilities.
Enforcing Existing Acceptable Use Policies:
Many companies have written policies regarding Web surfing
and content access. Without actual software content filtering
controls, a written policy is typically ignored and almost never
enforced. A policy that is controlled by software allows explicit
control of Web access and allows the network administrator to
track Web usage and even “coach” or educate users on company
policy in real-time. Combined with strict employee penalties,
a software-enforcement content policy can invigorate a written
Internet access policy.
Conserving Network Bandwidth:
Although network bandwidth for many companies has increased
over the past several years, the consumption of this bandwidth
has kept equal pace and continues to grow. Newer Web-based applications
along with graphics and music files consume large quantities
of available bandwidth.
As long as employees are allowed to access and download large
files, of any type, they will continue this practice. A content
filtering solution can control when and if employees are allowed
to download certain file types or access sports or stock trading
sites, thereby preserving existing bandwidth and controlling
costs.
Content Filtering Best Practices:
In order to gain the greatest benefit from a content filtering
solution, the network administrator should employ a content
filtering strategy that has been tested and known to provide
the most optimum results. The following “best practices” will
allow an organization to achieve maximum results when deploying
a content filtering solution.
Monitor Organizational Web Usage:
The first step to getting a handle on Internet access issues
is to gain insight into how the Web is being used and its potential
problem areas. It’s then possible to identify areas of abuse
and makes changes to resolve the problem.
With the Blue Coat/Websense solution a company can easily
track and monitor Web usage. Detailed reporting capabilities
allow an administrator to perform a Port 80 assessment to determine
Web traffic patterns and potential problem areas. Customized
reports through the Blue Coat Reporter can track and classify
individual user Web activity, top Web sites accessed, and much
more. Once a company has an understanding of their Web access
issues, appropriate policies can be defined and deployed using
the Blue Coat Security appliance and Websense URL database.
Define and Communicate Corporate Web Policy:
A policy is only as good as its enforcement. Consider the
following points:
- Involve IT, HR and other business functions. Clearly
define how to deal with offenders of the corporate Web policies
- Provide real-time “coaching” of users so that users
learn how they are supposed to work productively when using
the Internet
- Understand how to handle exceptions such as the CEO
or others who may need special access
Utilize Existing Infrastructure:
The existing corporate infrastructure can be ideal for implementing
an effective content filtering policy because key services are
most likely already in place. The Blue Coat content filtering
solution utilizes:
- A Directory for authentication. A Blue Coat Web
Security Appliance supports LDAPenabled directories for
authentication. For example, most companies are utilizing
Active Directory, eDirectory, iPlanet (SunOne), NTLM, or
RADIUS for authentication.
Apply Policy in “Both Directions”
Not only do companies want to control where employees go
on the Internet, but also limit what comes into the corporate
network. The Blue Coat Web Security Appliance provides the dual
benefit of:
- Controlling where users can go on the Web
- Controlling what content they can bring back
For example, administrators can allow users access to CNN.com,
but disallow any mobile code such as JAVA or ActiveX controls
to be downloaded. This provides an additional layer of protection
and flexibility so that an enterprise network is not compromised
by malicious mobile code.
To learn more about Websense and Blue Coat, please read the Solution
Brief below or for pricing please contact
us.
|
Blue
Coat & Websense