The need for information is greater than ever when every business nowadays depends on the internet to some extent. Attacks by cyber criminals becoming increasingly diverse and the web can be a dangerous place populated with inappropriate content, cybercriminals, hackers and people tracking your usage. It is becoming more and more difficult for small and medium businesses to take appropriate measures. That is why we would always recommend Web Protection as part of a multi layered security solution.
For small businesses, a financial attack for example can easily end in bankruptcy. For a medium-sized company it can mean a big bite out of the annual profit. In both cases, the consequences of such an attack mean a matter of life or death.
Protect your IT infrastructure
As a business you need to have policies in place that protect your IT infrastructure and productivity as well as your employees. Using a web access policy can eliminate the temptation for employees to visit inappropriate sites at work that lower productivity and also prevent accidental viewing of content such as adult material.
Flexible web access policy
Your web access policy must be flexible though. Some users need to access certain websites to carry out legitimate work, while those websites could be banned under a company’s web policy for others. Marketing staff would need to use social media websites as part of their job role and purchasing staff would need access to online shopping sites. You can also have policies in place where staff have internet access outside normal working hours and during lunch time, however during working hours internet use is restricted.
Web protection solution
A robust web protection solution needs to go beyond simply blocking your users from visiting malicious sites though. The most common way computers are compromised via the web is when websites infect computers using malware. Some websites are designed to infect the computers that visit. You can combat this, restricting the websites your users are allowed to visit. However cybercriminals also compromise legitimate websites and also use these sites to spread their malware.
When considering web protection solutions from your IT Support provider you need to ensure they include the following:
• Protect your business and users by securing against websites pushing malware, phishing, proxies, adware, botnets, spyware and spam
• Apply a granular range of time-based browsing rules and web content filtering policies
• Monitor user’s web activity even if no content filtering policies are in place
• Monitor internet bandwidth usage and alert when devices exceed
• Protect your business from legal liabilities
• Schedule access so employees can use non-work sites during out-of-office hours or at lunchtime.
• Use whitelists and blacklists to override category based filters
• Provide comprehensive and easy to understand reporting functionality
Protect your IT infrastructure and your employees
A web protection policy protects your IT infrastructure, while protecting employees and maintain standards for the use of the internet during working hours. Implementing measures for internet security is an investment in security and could prevent employees wasting time surfing the net or damage your company’s reputation.
Invest in IT security and save money
If a security issue leads to a visit to court, it could have financial consequences for a company. It is a much more costly exercise to recover from a financial attack or security breach than to prevent them. Do not wait until the last minute to take the appropriate security measures. Before you know it, it is too late.