Category Archives: CyBlock ISA TMG

Wavecrest is excited to unveil our new product knowledge base.

This new knowledge base will provide immediate, 24/7 support to our global customer base. Customers will be able to quickly find the answers they are looking for. The knowledge base comes with an enhanced search tool that shows relevant results as you type, dramatically reducing the resolution time.

Our top-rated technical support staff will be continuously updating the knowledge base. Wavecrest’s technical support staff is committed to providing customers with the best possible product experience. This commitment to quality will ensure the knowledge base will always yield the highest quality results for our customers. Through the knowledge base, customers will also be able to access detailed product release notes, tech tips, and the Wavecrest blog.

Wavecrest is always striving to provide continuously improved, higher level customer support. We furnish our customers with more than just a ‘product’, we provide them with a long-term ‘package’ that combines a cost-effective product with free support services whose priority is equal to that of product design. These services are available during the free product evaluation period and remains throughout the product license term.

See what existing customers are saying about Wavecrest’s technical support team:

“The Wavecrest support engineers are always eager and responsive to assist with any technical challenges facing our network. They have truly made my support to our customer relatively seamless.” -David Scott, Lockheed Martin CITIC

“Any pre-sales questions we had were answered promptly, and Wavecrest’s technical support ranks in the top 5% of all technical support I have worked with in 29 years of being in IT.” -Karleen Carlson, IT Manager, Van Diest Supply Company

“I can’t say enough about the service we have received from Wavecrest in general. From the sales team working with us through the trial and purchase period, to the support team that has answered each of our ‘quirks’.” -Allen Lochamy, Atlanta Bonded Warehouse

“Wavecrest has the best support of any company out there. Their staff members are always courteous to work with and knowledgeable about their product – which is a rarity in this type of work.” -Chris Martin, A+ Computer Solutions

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Wavecrest Computing Announces the Release of Our Redesigned User Interface

We are excited to announce the release of our redesigned user interface for Cyfin, CyBlock Software, CyBlock Appliance, and CyBlock Cloud.  The new user interface (UI) design was a collaborative effort, including direct customer input. This input played a major role in the design and layout of the new UI.  The results of this shared effort include a very intuitive layout with easy-to-use navigation and a widescreen layout that will cleanly work with any size monitor.

The new UI enhances our clients’ productivity by making it easier to access, configure, and manage all product functionality. We invite you to contact sales or technical support if you have any questions about the new UI!

NewUI

Cyfin Release 8.8.3 and CyBlock Release 6.8.3 Now Available

We are pleased to announce the release of three new audit reports in the new versions of Cyfin and CyBlock, which can provide management with detailed Web-use data on specific employees. These audit reports could be of interest to corporate IT forensic personnel, law enforcement agencies, anyone in the legal community, and forensic criminal investigators. They are capable of processing large amounts of log file data and support several types of log file formats such as Blue Coat and IronPort. The new reports are as follows:

  • Search Terms Audit Detail – The report shows search terms that users entered on popular search engine sites such as Google. It includes an option to show “prefetched” search results that were performed as the user was typing. These results are referred to as keystroke searches. This report can be used as a tool to aid in forensic investigations. It also indicates the number of search terms entered and can give the details of a user’s keystrokes.
  • Denied Detail – The report shows the specific URLs to which users were denied access. The data is broken out by user. Each Web page attempt is displayed with its corresponding category. Denied attempts for a Web page can signify that the user may not be authorized to receive the page, the page may not have been found by the Web server, or the page may have been blocked for access. If you have Web filtering enabled, this report can verify that it is working and is a very useful supplementary tool for individual user audits.
  • Legal Liability Detail – The report shows the specific URLs of Legal Liability Web activity by user, that is, visits to only the Anonymous/Public Proxy, Cults, Drugs, Gambling, Hate and Crime, Malware, and Pornography categories that pose a legal liability risk. By reporting on only these categories, smaller, more focused reports are available to facilitate analyses, investigations, and audits related to legal liability issues.

To see the full release notes for your product, visit the Support Forum. You can download the latest release by going to the Administration – Product Update screen in your Cyfin or CyBlock product.

For additional assistance, please contact us.

Cyfin Release 8.8.0 and CyBlock Release 6.8.0 Now Available

We are excited to announce the release of two major enhancements in the new version of Cyfin and CyBlock. The first major enhancement is the new SSL Inspection feature that allows our CyBlock products to decrypt, analyze, and fully inspect all HTTPS traffic. In order to defeat security threats facing companies today, SSL Inspection is essential. The second major enhancement is an innovative technique for protection against automated invasion of malicious scripts and software and/or unauthorized access to internal networks. Enhanced Malware Protection automates the process of identifying large numbers of new malware-spreading sites daily. To facilitate identifying and blocking malware traffic, three security threat categories have been consolidated into a new Malware category.

Other enhancements in this release include the rebranding of our products, new product icons displayed after installation, and new product Help. We also have a number of corrections in this release. The details of the enhancements include the following:

  • Product Rebranding.The Wavecrest products have been rebranded as follows:
    • The products offered are CyBlock and Cyfin (formerly Cyfin Reporter).
    • Three deployment options are available for CyBlock:
      • CyBlock Software (formerly CyBlock Proxy)
      • CyBlock Appliance
      • CyBlock ISA/TMG
    • These changes are reflected on the Wavecrest Web site and the Forum. They will eventually transition to the products and associated documentation.
  • SSL Inspection.This includes the following changes:
    • Ability to view the full URL including path, embedded URLs, and parameters.
    • Domain, path, and parameter matching.
    • Ability to filter detailed HTTPS traffic by Web categories and Web content types and display blocking messages for both.
    • Safe Search blocking (where applicable).
    • Ability to view full URLs in the Real-Time Web Monitor.
    • Ability to view full URLs in the following reports (where applicable), not just domains:
      • Category Audit Detail
      • Category Audit Summary
      • Site Audit Detail
      • User Audit Detail
      • User Audit Summary
    • A new SSL Inspection screen that allows you to select groups and/or IDs and standard and custom categories to be inspected. To access this screen, go to Advanced Settings – Proxy Settings – SSL Inspection. For inspection to occur, you must select a group and/or an ID, and set a category to Inspected. The Financial category is set to Tunneled by default for privacy reasons, but this can be changed to Inspected.

Note:  Before using SSL Inspection, the Wavecrest Certificate must be installed. Refer to the Wavecrest Certificate Installation Guide for instructions on how to install/distribute the certificate. For more information on this enhancement, see the SSL Inspection Tech Brief.

  • Enhanced Malware Protection in URL List.This includes the following changes:
    • Extensive malware site additions were made to the URL List. You will receive the enhanced protection when the list is downloaded manually or automatically.
    • The Hacking, Phishing/Fraud, and Spyware/Malicious categories were consolidated into a new Malware category.
    • Custom URL entries categorized as Hacking, Phishing/Fraud, and Spyware/Malicious are now categorized as Malware.
    • The Hacking, Phishing/Fraud, and Spyware/Malicious categories were replaced by the new Malware category on appropriate screens and in all category drop-down boxes.
    • For CyBlock, on the Block Web Categories screen, the Malware category is set to “Block” in the Default policy in new installations by default. In existing installations, previous settings will not change when the product is upgraded, that is, the Malware category will be set to the previous Spyware/Malicious category setting.
    • The Malware category is displayed on the Help – Reporting – Check URL screen under URL Category Match when there is a category match.
    • Scheduled reports now report on the Malware category if they were set up to report on the Hacking, Phishing/Fraud, and Spyware/Malicious categories.
  • Product Icons. The Wavecrest product icon has been replaced with new CyBlock and Cyfin product icons on the Start menu and on the browser tab (favicon).
  • Product Help. The QR pages in the product have been replaced by a new searchable Help system. The Help system has a similar TOC as the product manual, but also includes an Index and a Search box. If a search result indicates “Web site,” you can right-click the entry to open the page in a new tab or window. You can also print a displayed Help topic by clicking the Print button.

To see the full release notes for your product, visit the Support Forum. You can download the latest release by going to the Administration – Product Update screen in your Cyfin or CyBlock product.

For additional assistance, please contact us.

Cyfin Release 8.7.2 and CyBlock Release 6.7.2 Now Available

Upgrade today with the latest release of Cyfin and CyBlock. In this release, you will find new user guides, significant changes to the Dashboard charts, new pages to display errors, screen communication with the ISA plug-in as well as several corrections. The list of enhancements for CyBlock Proxy, CyBlock ISA, CyBlock Appliance, Cyfin Reporter, and Cyfin Proxy includes the following:

  • User Guides. The user guides were enhanced to add a hyperlinked table of contents and additional hyperlinks in the chapters for ease of navigation when reading as electronic documents. The chapter and section headings, notes, cautions, and important information are color-coded for improved readability. With the improved layout, the user guides can be easily printed double-sided if you prefer to read in hard copy.
  • Dashboard Charts. The charts and screens were modified to remove the need for Adobe Flash Player, add the ability to zoom in the chart, add a legend to toggle options on and off, and update other sections of the screens.
  • Import From Active Directory. After creating or modifying an Active Directory configuration, you can now click an import link on the Configuration Completed screen. You will be directed to the Import – Active Directory – Manual screen to import groups and IDs.
  • Error Pages. Error pages were added to display more detailed error information and allow information to be sent via e-mail to the administrator if the administrator e-mail is set up. The administrator can then submit the error and additional information to Wavecrest Technical Support.
  • New Job Queue Section. For CyBlock, a Job Queue section was added to the Block Web Categories and Block Web Content screens to inform the user that jobs are running in the queue. If jobs are in the queue, this new section is displayed when the page is accessed or after submitting changes. The page is refreshed when the Job Queue is empty.
  • Speed Up ISA Communication. The communication between the ISA plug-in and the CyBlock service was enhanced so that on the Edit URLs screen, only custom categories are loaded and not the entire URL List decreasing the load time. In addition, messages are now queued.
  • Add Screen Communication for ISA.Changes were made to indicate that the ISA plug-in is communicating with specific screens while the communication messages are being queued. Messages will be displayed on the following screens:
    • Login – Results
    • Administration – System Information – Filter Status
    • Advanced Settings – Filter Settings – Block Web Categories
    • Advanced Settings – Filter Settings – Block Web Content

To see the full release notes for your product, visit the Support Forum. You can download the latest release by going to the Administration – Product Update screen in your Cyfin or CyBlock product.

For additional assistance, please contact us.

Coaching Now Available for CyBlock

 

Since 1996, Wavecrest has been creating solutions that help customers implement and enforce their Internet Usage policies. As the Internet landscape changes, some websites that were once categorized as unproductive are not so clear these days, causing current Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) to impede necessary productivity as organizations struggle to keep up with the ever-changing Internet. As part of Wavecrest’s mission to constantly improve, the coaching feature has recently been added to CyBlock Proxy v6.7 and CyBlock ISA / TMG v6.7 to alleviate this growing concern.

Standard CyBlock Proxy Blocking Message

Customize this Message to Reflect Company AUP

Customize this Message to Reflect Company AUP

This optional-use, customer-configurable, policy support feature allows authenticated / authorized users to override CyBlock’s blocking function while allowing them to proceed to the site they have requested. Coaching can be enabled on categories that have been set to “block”, and policies are customizable based on time of day, user name or group. The coaching feature provides customers with more flexibility and control while continuing to support their company policies through custom block messages.

For more information using CyBlock’s coaching function and creating your own custom blocking message, check out our easy-to-follow instructions on our latest Tech Tip: Create a Custom Blocking Message While Coaching.

Tech Tip: Create a Custom Blocking Message While Coaching

Based on your policy configuration, access to blocked websites direct the user to a message which can be customized to remind them of the current Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).  CyBlock Proxy v6.7  and CyBlock ISA / TMG v6.7 now offers the ability for the user to proceed beyond the blocked page through a feature called coaching.  A custom blocking message does not automatically have coaching enabled because of a required token needed in the body of the blocking message. In order to enable the coaching feature with a custom blocking message, follow the below steps.

  1. Open the folder that contains the Standard Web Blocking Message file. The default location of this file is [INSTALL PATH]\wc\cyblock\db\stdBlkMsg.htm.
  2. Make a copy of this file, and rename the copy to CustomBlockedMessage.htm.
  3. Edit the HTML of ‘CustomBlockedMessage.htm’ to meet your needs. Your Custom Blocked Message file must contain *tokens {0} through {4}. Include the Coaching token ({6}) to enable the Coaching feature in the Block Web Categories Screen.
  4. Save your ‘CustomBlockedMessage.htm’ file
  5. Ensure the “Message Source” option is selected.
  6. Browse to and select your CustomBlockedMessage.htm file.
  7. Apply your changes by clicking the Submit button.
  8. You will now have the coaching feature option with your custom blocking message.

Definitions:

The following describes the available tokens, and their use within the blocked message file:

*Token Description
{0} The username that is being blocked.
{1} The URL being accessed, that caused the user to be blocked.
{2} The Category Name that the URL is classified as.
{3} Your organization name as defined on the License Information screen.
{4} The current Block Policy name that is blocking the user.
{5} Not used for Blocking Messages.
{6} Coaching feature. Optional. If present and enabled in the Block Web Categories Screen, the user will be presented with
a notice and a link to bypass the block message.
NOTE: To disable the Coaching feature in the Block Web Categories Screen, omit this token.

CyBlock Proxy New Release Version 6.7.0

Application use and non-web-based traffic are oftentimes the primary culprits degrading your network speed.  As much as 70% of your company’s bandwidth is likely being consumed by non-productive pursuits — now is the time to address your poor network performance, slow applications, and bandwidth congestion.  CyBlock Proxy’s latest release of Version 6.7.0 enables administrators to easily manage access to the ever-expanding world of web applications — ensuring maximum network speed and optimum Internet / Intranet performance. 

  • Version 6.7.0 Enhancements
    • Bandwidth Throttling
    • Search Term Matching
    • Web Site Domain Matching
    • Path and Parameter Matching
    • Coaching
    • Filtering by Day and Time
    • Report Time Filter

Our latest release will relieve you from daily grunt work by automatically enforcing your organization’s Internet use policy, rapidly improving employee productivity and blocking Internet threats, freeing you up to work on other areas of importance to your organization and your career.  You can download the latest release by going to the Administration – Product Update screen.

For Product News: Administrators have the option of receiving product news alerts via email.  This setting is found on the Administration – Product News – Setup page.  NOTE: The default setting is “Do not email.”

CyBlock Proxy upgrades are free to current Wavecrest customers.  To download yours, login at CyBlock Proxy Downloads.

Read complete release notes with the full list of enhancements and corrections.  For additional assistance, please feel free to contact us today!

Monitoring Internet Usage … From the IT Department

During July, August, and September of 2011, Commtouch assessed categories of Web sites most likely to be home to malware, below are the top ranking offenders.  The Portals category includes those sites offering free hosting which are often abused to publish malware and phishing content or will redirect to sites with this content.

What were the most-visited categories by your employees during 2011?

Are you currently monitoring and/or blocking the existing Spyware/Malicious, Phishing/Fraud, Public Proxy, and Hacking categories to help protect your network?

Source: Commtouch

In today’s wired workplace, internet security and bandwidth consumption are top concerns for IT professionals while employee productivity and legal liability ail management and HR professionals.  As a major contributor to the Web-use management effort, IT typically becomes deeply involved in planning, testing, selecting, installing, and administering Internet monitoring software.  With the different departments playing a role in deciding on the best product to fit their vast needs, most are left without a solution.  Fortunately, Wavecrest’s products have been reviewed by our customers as meeting each role’s needs most effectively, offering manager-ready, easy-to-interpret reports that can be accessed without the IT personnel in addition to providing a robust, truly scalable IT-friendly remedy.

With Wavecrest Computing, customers have the insight needed to proactively monitor / block the notorious malicious sites based on custom categories, the Wavecrest Control List, and a real-time deep packet analysis process.  Plus, our 19 comprehensive templates provide a variety of summarized and detailed Web-use activity reports on users, groups, categories, sites, acceptability ratings, and bandwidth consumption.  Conveniently import your current Web Use Policy to easily customize or classify categories, implement abuse thresholding, and monitor employee productivity while our Administrator and Operator Accounts allow for non-IT personnel to create and obtain their role-specific reports.

While serving a diverse mixture of commercial businesses, industrial firms, government agencies, military units, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations since 1996, our products continue to present the most up-to-date, proactive coverage in line with the one factor that underlies all Web-use management issues, human online activity. Wavecrest’s managers and developers understand human resource management well and we use that knowledge to develop features that prevent productivity losses, legal liability problems, network issues, and unnecessary costs.

What’s Hogging Your Company’s Bandwidth? Causes for Slow Network Speed this Holiday.

If you haven’t noticed, online holiday shopping lasts well beyond Cyber Monday.  According to a ComScore report, after the 2010 holiday shopping season, more than 85% of Americans online visited a retail site in December of last year.  Employees shopping online at work are likely causing critical applications, like Voice over IP (VoIP) and video conferencing, to perform poorly if at all.  The last thing you and your company need is network latency or slowdowns due to non-work related online activity.  Many of our clients are seeing a spike in bandwidth usage from shopping websites and have quickly taken measures to filter browsing to that category.  Which sites consumed the most bandwidth for your company this month?  Determine what factors are impacting your network speed before you decide to purchase more bandwidth – an expense that could be avoided with the right tools and a bit of discipline.

With 19 different types of highly customizable employee Web-use reports, Cyfin Reporter offer insights as to which types of traffic consume the maximum volume throughout the workday.  Monitor, filter, and report over 500 million Web pages in 74 categories and set throttling thresholds for sites that are slowing your company’s Internet speed with CyBlock Proxy.  Now is the time to address your poor network performance, slow applications, and bandwidth congestion.

We’re so sure you’ll benefit from our solutions that we offer a free 30-day product trial. Both products provide quantified data to help IT personnel keep track of bandwidth utilization by users as well as by type of usage (appropriate versus not so appropriate). After you’ve downloaded our products, take advantage of the User Comparison Trend Chart to detect unexpected spikes that could indicate excessive bandwidth or Web use.  Then review your Top Sites Bandwidth Chart (example seen below) and find out which ten sites are consuming the most bandwidth or had the most hits or visits for the time period you specify.

Top Sites Bandwidth Chart

 

Top Sites Bandwidth Chart for both Cyfin and CyBlock