Tag Archives: employee web use reports

Are you leaving your small business Web-use security door open?

There is so much to be concerned with when running a small business. Economic uncertainty, the cost of health insurance benefits, regulatory burdens, keeping mission-critical operations running–all add up to a stressful experience. Now security concerns include more than just locking the doors; it means everything digital too. And the risks? With ransomware, phishing, insider threats, unsanctioned cloud apps, BYOD . . . lets just say, the Internet usage risks are probably even higher than the front door being left open . . . wide open.

Many small and midsized businesses (SMBs) are without full-time IT departments or even full-time IT personnel, making them a prime target for breaches. But SMBs tend to think they don’t have the resources to handle this type of security, whether it be the financial consideration, personnel needed, or when hardware is preferred, limited space constraints. Since hackers know this, SMBs have to be proactive when it comes to Web-use security–nowadays, even more so than corporations.

The connection between the human and the Internet is a weak link, making it one of the leading access points into a system for a hacker. Whether it’s from the employee clicking a Web link in an e-mail, clicking a malicious ad, or sharing company information with a cloud service, make sure to protect the business by managing that employee-Internet connection. Find a solution that allows you to easily and proactively monitor and secure your employees’ Web activity. Your business is unique–finding a way to solve these issues and concerns will take a unique solution.

A few tips for your Web-use security solution search:

  1. Find a vendor who will spend the time with you. The cyber world has its own language. It’s important to have a human being on the other end of the phone during the sales process, in customer service, and when you need technical support . . . yup, they still have human beings in technical support . . . go figure! Get with a company who wants to talk to you!
  2. Of course, it doesn’t help if that vendor doesn’t have what you need so make sure you list the top security priorities for your business. Do you want to filter access to certain Web sites or categories such as social media, or do you want to limit time that an employee may spend on one site? Are you are more concerned with your guest Wi-Fi and BYOD or throttling bandwidth use? Don’t get sold on something that doesn’t meet at least your primary concerns. One solution does not always fit all . . . in today’s cybersecurity world you need to focus on your specific business concerns. Just because an expensive, large scale, all-in-one network security solution or firewall has a Web-use add-on tool does not mean it will give you the pertinent, granular detail and control that you need to protect your mission-critical operations.
  3. Ask questions. The vendor should understand that you excel at what you do, not what they do. Don’t be intimidated by the security subject. Even those of us in this business spend a lot of time keeping up with the fast pace of cybersecurity. No question is unnecessary. If you think about it, then it is important to you and should be to the vendor too. Refer to Tip #1!
  4. Last tip for today . . . solutions come in many shapes and sizes. Don’t settle for something that doesn’t fit your business. Your business is special and unique. Your solution should fit and work in your environment without you constantly having to justify it and make it fit in.

Wavecrest can, and wants to, help you!

Wavecrest provides Filtering and User Behavior Reporting solutions that fit your business! Find out more about our Cyfin and CyBlock deployments today. As a customer-centric company, Wavecrest focuses on the needs of each customer. Let us help secure your business with a solution that fits every business size, type, and configuration.

About Wavecrest

Trusted for over 25 years, Wavecrest Computing, headquartered in historic downtown Melbourne, FL, has provided commercial business and government clients with reliable, accurate Web-use management and User Behavior Analytic products since 1996. Managed Service Providers, IT specialists, HR professionals, and business managers trust Wavecrest’s Cyfin and CyBlock products to manage employee Internet usage — managing and reporting on cloud services, reducing liability risks, improving productivity, saving bandwidth, and controlling costs. Wavecrest has commercial and government clients worldwide. For more information on the company, products, and partners, visit https://www.wavecrest.net.

Take the mystery out of employee Web use and gain pertinent insight into your business.

Employee Web usage management and reporting

We are all seeing how business operations are continuously becoming more digitally driven. Many operations that were done on a desktop are now cloud- or app-driven. The connection to the Internet is a constant, and since your employees need that access to be productive, managing that connection should be a priority. Small businesses are finding that this access not only centralizes their operations and data but also can save them money. But they are finding that the amount of data being produced makes it impossible to find the relevant information needed. Looking at the employee-Internet relationship should be on the top of your checklist.

There are things that a Web-use management solution should provide, such as allowing a business to easily filter and control access, use white and black lists, and set time limits. But one of the biggest benefits that many times can be overlooked is the ability to access easy-to-use smart analytics and reporting tools. A filtering solution is great, but if it lacks a way to collect and correlate useful, pertinent data, then all that it is doing is restricting employees, causing frustration and potentially reducing productivity. With detailed reporting and analytics, managers can open up the usefulness of the Internet while knowing they still have the control to keep the business running smoothly and safely.

Look for the Web-use management solution that provides:

  • Drill-Down, Interactive, Forensic-Level Detail – A complete view of every link a user clicks, the exact search terms entered by a user, their search time, and more.
  • Ad Hoc and Scheduled Reporting – The information you need . . .  right when you need it.
  • Smart Reporting – Intelligent, timely, and cogent reporting on all aspects of employee Web usage.
  • Hits Versus Visits – Clear, uncluttered detail based on user clicks versus unsolicited traffic.
  • Manager Access – IT-controlled access for managers and HR allowing them reporting access without the need for IT assistance.

Analytics and reporting tools allow you to take the large amount of Web-use data your employees are producing and make sense of it. This data should tell you who, where, and when about the Web usage. Allowing you to see anomalies, activity peaks, bandwidth usage, and more, this visibility helps you plan and secure your network, data, and employees.

Don’t feel like you’re in need of tarot cards or tea leaves to know what is happening within your business.

CyBlock Web-Use Management Suite makes more sense of all your Web-use data with CyBlock’s comprehensive monitoring and reporting features. CyBlock is available in Cloud and VM deployments to fit any business size or industry.

Cyfin® provides advanced employee Web-use analysis and reporting for a wide variety of gateway devices and log file formats. Comprehensive yet easy to use, its customizable reporting and machine-learning analytics supply audience-specific Web-use information with reliable metrics, easy-to-read reporting dashboards, manager-ready detailed audit reports, and Smart Engine analytics. Cyfin is available in various deployment options: Cyfin VM, Cyfin Cloum and Cyfin Forensic.

About Wavecrest

Wavecrest has over 25 years of proven history of providing reliable, accurate Web-use management and Advanced Log File Analyzer products across various industries. Managed Service Providers, IT specialists, HR professionals, Forensics Investigators, and business managers trust Wavecrest’s Cyfin and CyBlock products to manage the human factor in business Internet usage — managing cloud services, reducing liability risks, improving productivity, saving bandwidth, and controlling costs. Trusted by large government and commercial organizations. For more information on the company, products, and partners, visit https://www.wavecrest.net.

Wavecrest Computing Releases Cyfin VPN Usage Reporting

Wavecrest Computing proudly announces the release of Cyfin’s new feature, VPN Usage Reporting. Cyfin is a leading employee Web-use analysis and reporting solution for a wide variety of gateway devices and log file formats.

Wavecrest, a global leader in employee Web-use management, monitoring, and analytics solutions, today announced the release of Cyfin’s newest feature, Virtual Private Network (VPN) Usage Reporting. VPN usage reporting supports today’s increased need to monitor remote employee Web-use while reducing the concern of extending enforcement of Acceptable Use Policies (AUP), managing productivity, and monitoring time online.

The new VPN usage feature adds the capabilities of monitoring the number of active sessions throughout the day, seeing when most people connect and disconnect, determining who has not connected recently, visibility into and responding to unexpected disconnections and excessive invalid login attempts or failures to connect, and more.

“Right now many businesses are in the state of flux, and may remain that way for some time,” notes Dennis McCabe, CEO of Wavecrest. “The remote and distributed workforce has always been part of Wavecrest’s focus, especially with our CyBlock product lines. Now, with VPN usage being an integral part of today’s business environment, we are excited to increase Cyfin’s features to satisfy even more of what customers look for when supporting their workforce. We know that continuing to advance our products allows businesses more freedom and flexibility to operate with any workforce distribution that they require, without having to worry about losing key visibility.”

Comprehensive yet easy to use, Cyfin’s customizable reporting capabilities supply audience-specific Web-use information with reliable metrics, easy-to-read reporting dashboards, manager-ready detailed audit reports, VPN usage reporting, IP segmenting, and more.

For more information, visit https://www.wavecrest.net.

About Us
With over 20 years of proven history Wavecrest provides reliable, accurate Web-use management, filtering, reporting, and analytics products worldwide across every industry. Managers, C-Suite, IT, HR, MSPs, Auditors, and more trust Wavecrest’s Cyfin and CyBlock products to easily decipher and manage real employee Web activity, gain visibility into the distributed workforce, reduce liability risks, improve productivity, save bandwidth, and control costs. Trusted by large government and commercial organizations such as US-CERT Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Justice, USPS Office of Inspector General, National Grid, Johns Hopkins, and a growing list of global enterprises and government agencies. We are a proud long-term GSA contract holder. For more information on the company, products, and partners, visit Wavecrest at www.wavecrest.net.

Requirements of an effective employee Web-use management program

Because managing employee Web use deals with humans and their actions, it is a continuous process for all sizes and types of businesses, where the goal is to ensure employees use Web access safely for productive, work-related purposes. To attain a high level of success, I believe that this process requires a Web-use management program be put in place that involves many key players in the organization, communication of the company’s Web-use policy, implementation of a reliable tool to monitor and control Web use, and other important activities. In this article, I will discuss the requirements of an effective employee Web-use management program and the activities involved that will bring about safe and productive Internet use by the workforce.

The key ingredient in an effective program is collaboration and communication among the various groups in the company, i.e., senior management, Legal department, IT personnel, HR personnel, department managers and supervisors, and employees. Communication would include IT keeping company stakeholders informed about current hacker threats, as well as HR apprising senior management of pertinent employee Web-use behavior. Collaboration would occur among HR, IT, and department managers in training the workforce. Collaboration would also take place between IT and department heads to select the appropriate Web monitoring and filtering tool.

If you don’t have one already, another necessity of a Web-use management program is to develop a sound Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) consistent with corporate culture. The AUP should describe acceptable and unacceptable Web-use behavior, i.e., company rules for what constitutes desirable, acceptable, unacceptable, and abusive use of the Internet and other network resources. The policy should also clearly state how compliance will be monitored and what the consequences will be to employees abusing the use of network resources. Does your company have an AUP in place that spells out the rules to your employees?

To ensure adherence to the Web-use policy, it should be clearly communicated to the entire workforce, including management, informing them of what is and what is not acceptable in easily understood language. You may also want to have employees acknowledge that they read and understood the policy through a signed acknowledgement. HR and management personnel should hold meetings with workgroups to answer questions and provide any additional information. This fosters open communication in the workplace and allows employees to be more engaged in proper Internet usage.

In addition to communicating the policy to all concerned, another requirement of an effective Web-use management program is training employees on how to use Web access productively and safely. Whether training is conducted or coordinated by HR or in collaboration with managers and other department personnel, training sessions should cover Internet usage and related subjects. Specifically, employees need to be made aware of what sites they are visiting and what they are clicking on the Web. The purpose of training should be to encourage proper, productive, and safe use of network resources while reinforcing the information in the AUP.

An important requirement of a Web-use management program is to use a reliable software tool that is designed specifically to monitor compliance with Web-use policies and proactively control Web access. The tool should also include a smart reporting engine that distinguishes between user clicks (visits) and unsolicited traffic (hits) and easily presents accurate and up-to-date Web-use data, identifying desirable Web usage as well as unacceptable use and trends. Does your tool include a Smart Engine that analyzes Web traffic to better interpret human behavior? Does it generate easy-to-read, manager-ready reports? Does it give details on employee Web use with drill-down reporting capability? These are key features of a Web monitoring and filtering tool that will benefit IT, HR, and department managers.

Another activity that is necessary is following up with corrective actions when inappropriate Web access is detected. With a policy in place, personnel oriented, the workforce trained, and your Web monitoring and filtering solution actively monitoring and controlling Web use, there are still more activities to do. The tool will inevitably reveal patterns of inappropriate use or disclose signs of outright abuse. These incidents will require attention by HR and management personnel. After identifying the problems, management can take appropriate follow-up actions, such as counseling employees, training or retraining workers, changing work processes, and revising or clarifying the AUP. Managers may also need to institute follow-up audits on individual users and, in worst case, take disciplinary action including termination.

The final element of an effective employee Web-use management program that I will cover involves the establishment of a continuous improvement process by the collaboration team, i.e., HR, IT, department managers, etc. In this process, there would be frequent reviews of employee Web use, new Web services introduced into the network, and new security threats, modifications of work processes, and appropriate revisions of the AUP. All company stakeholders would be involved. What other activities have been effective in your company in managing employee Web use?

Unauthorized Web use can degrade workforce productivity, impact network performance, threaten network security, and create legal liabilities. Any of these outcomes can seriously impact your bottom line. An effective employee Web-use management program is essential to prevent this from happening. If the responsibilities of an effective program are carried out well, misuse and abuse of network resources will be minimized without damaging workforce engagement and morale. Getting accurate, actionable information to all collaborators is a must, and the tool that you are using should be able to provide this information. Next time I will discuss how to get this information with reliable metrics generated by a reporting tool.

Show cyber threats who is boss in 2018.

Last year went by so fast. In between everyone’s normal busy schedule, most of us had to deal with natural disasters of some kind. For us at Wavecrest, it was Hurricane Irma as well as an above average rainy season. For others, it was Harvey and Maria, as well as fires, flooding,  earthquakes, remnants of storms causing wind damage–the list last year seems to be endless.

2017 also brought on some notable cyber events with the Equifax breach as one of the top incidents. 2017 was definitely a year for the books. You may have also noticed a shift in the business digital threat protection messaging. We at Wavecrest noticed . . . because it shifted to what we have always focused on. People.

People are a big part of the cyber threats that take place in businesses. No matter how automated things are, there is always the aspect of human interaction–human vulnerability. Humans inherently have vulnerabilities. It’s not a fault of one individual over another; it’s not about how good your employees are. There is a point where a business owner, manager, or decision-maker has to come to terms with managing Web use for the sake of the business over “my employees wouldn’t do that” or “I trust everyone working for me.” It may be true that you have the most trustworthy employees, but mistakes happen . . . even to the best of us. Cyber criminals focus on the easiest route first to gain access to your systems. Many times this is the employee, or human, vulnerability.

So . . . the new year is here. What can be done to improve managing employee Web use? The key is to make sure you pay attention to the human endpoint because it is not always about a failure in the actual technology. The firewall is great but if you have a weakness with an authorized user, the hacker will get past the firewall. Defend the human endpoint.

Consider these as a starting point and build on each or all!

  • MONITOR YOUR EMPLOYEES’ WEB USE! Sorry. It had to be said. If you do not know what is happening, you will not be able to know why, when, or where it happened. And you will not be able to make an informed decision on how to stop it from happening again. Remember that many times the human error that allowed for a breach may have been habitual or reactive so the employee’s memory of how it happened may not be very clear. Make sure to have visibility into the actual Web activity.
  • Analytics. Really another part of monitoring but noted separately due its importance and the flexibility of what you should be able to view and analyze. Find a Web activity solution that allows you to see relevant, drill-down data when you need it. Trends, customizable charts, by user or group, and real-time information on activity and bandwidth use are all things you should be able to analyze easily. All will allow you to expose abnormalities in user activity, identify potential insider threat behavior, flag possible legal liability issues, assess trends for data breach exposure, and observe patterns for lost productivity.
    • Hits versus Visits. This one deserves a sub-bullet. Make sure the Web-use management solution you choose has clearly defined Hits vs. Visits. Hits consist of unsolicited traffic, such as ads, and are not a reliable tracking metric on its own. Visits give you uncluttered, relevant Web activity detail based on user clicks and are a critical component to understanding human behavior. The last thing you want to do is try and sift through a bunch of data that is not even really relevant to the employee’s actual Web activity.

  • Filter. Yup . . . another suggestion that has the “but my employees are awesome” stigma to it. BUT let me just remind you that this is something that will provide another layer of security from phishing, malicious Web links, and data loss. I got your synapses firing now, don’t I! Filtering allows you to block or restrict URL link clicks that an employee may not be aware are malicious. Hackers have become increasingly precise in how things look. Very convincing e-mails and Web links are not rare anymore; they are commonplace. It is not really all about making sure your employee isn’t streaming YouTube all day. Although that should be managed as well, it should all be under your control. Allow it, don’t allow it, throttle it, or open it all up. The solution you choose should allow you to do it all, in your own customizable way.

The point is that the human endpoint is still a leading way threats get into your network. It may be through phishing, a malicious ad, or use of a unsanctioned cloud application, or it may even be a human error such as the delay of updating software. Whatever the issue, you have to be as proactive as possible to protect your network. Educate your employees continuously, have a comprehensive Web activity solution in place, make sure your Acceptable Use Policy is current, make sure patch management is an active process, and hug your IT people regularly because they are usually some of the busiest and stressed people in your organization.

Here is to showing the cyber criminals who is boss in 2018! Happy New Year!

About Wavecrest

Wavecrest has over 20 years of proven history of providing reliable, accurate Web-use management and Advanced Log File Analyzer products across various industries. Managed Service Providers, IT specialists, HR professionals, Forensics Investigators, and business managers trust Wavecrest’s Cyfin and CyBlock products to manage the human factor in business Internet usage — managing cloud services, reducing liability risks, improving productivity, saving bandwidth, and controlling costs. Trusted by large government and commercial organizations such as US-CERT Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Justice, USPS Office of Inspector General, National Grid, Johns Hopkins, and a growing list of global enterprises and government agencies. We are a proud long-term GSA contract holder. For more information on the company, products, and partners, visit https://www.wavecrest.net.

Is your business’ human operating system secure?

Everyone is worried about operating systems, whether it is network operations, business operations, or a desktop operating system. The functionality of these intricate parts of your business are critical. But have you thought about your employees and how they operate? Today, your human operating system needs to be more than just making sure your employees are doing their job. Human vulnerabilities are a primary target for cyber criminals. Your human operating system, or the human factor, needs to be manageable and efficient, with tools in place that proactively support an open, yet secure, digital work environment.

Insider threats can be found at the top of headlines almost every day. Listen carefully to what each event tells you. It can happen to you, no matter how big or how small your business is. You don’t have to be a government organization to be susceptible to an insider threat. Insider threats can be a malicious employee who may be upset at the company, a good employee who just makes a mistake, or a targeted employee who unknowingly allows a malicious user into the network or access to proprietary data. Whatever the cause, there has to be tools in place to combat these human factor Web-use risks.

The human factor in business Web use is complicated in many ways. Hackers target natural human vulnerabilities and mistakes happen, employees can be sensitive to being singled out or afraid to admit the mistake, and fully blocking all access in today’s digital work world will likely just limit productivity and upset employees. The key? Visibility into the human factor. See how and when your employees use their Internet access. With that visibility into Web-use detail, you can then manage the usage to fit your unique business needs and gain a comprehensive, proactive way to secure and protect your business.

Securing and managing your enterprise’s human operating system in a proactive and efficient manner will help reduce cyber risks, such as phishing, malware intrusions, ransomware, data loss, employee misuse, legal liabilities, bandwidth hogs, shadow IT, and more. Find a solution that fits your business and your budget. Make sure it is flexible, easy to use, and easy to manage, allowing you to secure and shape employee Web-use–on your terms.

About Wavecrest

Wavecrest has over 20 years of proven history of providing reliable, accurate Web-use management and Advanced Log File Analyzer products across various industries. Managed Service Providers, IT specialists, HR professionals, Forensics Investigators, and business managers trust Wavecrest’s Cyfin and CyBlock products to manage the human factor in business Internet usage — managing cloud services, reducing liability risks, improving productivity, saving bandwidth, and controlling costs. Trusted by large government and commercial organizations such as US-CERT Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Justice, USPS Office of Inspector General, National Grid, Johns Hopkins, and a growing list of global enterprises and government agencies. We are a proud long-term GSA contract holder. For more information on the company, products, and partners, visit https://www.wavecrest.net.

Don’t let size fool you.

smallpower

 

Don’t be fooled by the name–CyBlock Mini Appliance is powerful, comprehensive, and worth every inch of its compactness.

Maintaining visibility throughout your workforce is key to running a secure business today. Don’t settle on just any solution that really doesn’t meet your needs. If you need coverage for a remote office, have limited space either in your server room or in your office, or are struggling with how to keep your business secure with a limited IT budget, Wavecrest has more choices than ever. No matter what business size or industry type, CyBlock Mini Appliance is likely to be just what you have been looking for.

The powerful Mini Appliance provides the comprehensive Web-use security capabilities of CyBlock, including HTTP and HTTPS URL filtering, comprehensive detailed reporting, secure guest Wi-Fi services with captive portal, advanced threat protection, bandwidth management, cloud services management, as well as coverage for non-HTTP activity, e.g., P2P, torrents, IM, and e-mail. Get all of this in one compact and economical package. The general size of a Wi-Fi hub, the Mini allows you to put it in the corner, on your desk, or in that tiny space you have left in your packed server room!

As a cost-effective choice for any business type or size, the robust, yet compact Mini Appliance provides the leading-edge, comprehensive Web-use security capabilities of CyBlock. Designed to fit every business environment, the Mini Appliance can be paired with CyBlock Appliance or deployed on its own, depending on the required Web-use security solution needs.

For more information on CyBlock Mini Appliance or any of our other products, please contact us today!

About Wavecrest Computing

Celebrating 20 years in business, Wavecrest Computing, headquartered in historic downtown Melbourne, FL, has provided commercial business and government clients with reliable, accurate Web-use management and Cloud Access Security Broker products since 1996. Managed Service Providers, IT specialists, HR professionals, and business managers trust Wavecrest’s Cyfin and CyBlock products to manage employee Internet usage — managing cloud services, reducing liability risks, improving productivity, saving bandwidth, and controlling costs. Wavecrest has clients worldwide, including General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Florida Department of Health, Siemens, Department of Homeland Security, and a growing list of global enterprises and government agencies. We are a proud long-term GSA contract holder. For more information on the company, products, and partners, visit https://www.wavecrest.net.

Time for a change . . . for the better.

culturechange2

Changes are finally showing at Forcepoint since the Raytheon acquisition of Websense. We know Websense customers are feeling some pinch this year since the Raytheon policies are now kicking in. Support or customer service people are harder to get a hold of. When renewal time comes around, the pricing, contract terms, and even the product lines have changed, and more.

Hesitate before you sign on again. Why should you pay extra for add-ons that should already be included in a Web-use security solution, like SSL inspection and U.S.-based technical support? Or why should you pay for a cloud solution that does not have the reporting detail that makes it a useful tracking or investigative tool? Research your options. It may well be time for your own change — to a stable, customer-centric Web-use security solution vendor like Wavecrest Computing.

Wavecrest has cost-effective, comprehensive, agile, and reliable solutions for your employee Web-use security and analytics needs, ranging from software and hardware deployments to cloud and hybrid deployments–all with SSL inspection, forensic-level reporting detail, and U.S.-based technical support included. No matter your business size, industry, or distributed workforce, Wavecrest has an easy-to-setup and easy-to-manage solution for you. Leave the high prices and complicated contractual terms, hidden fees for technical support or product updates, and all the confusion behind. Let Wavecrest focus on your business and your specific requirements. Talk to us today.

About Wavecrest Computing

Celebrating 20 years in business, Wavecrest Computing, headquartered in historic downtown Melbourne, FL, has provided commercial business and government clients with reliable, accurate Web-use management and Cloud Access Security Broker products since 1996. Managed Service Providers, IT specialists, HR professionals, and business managers trust Wavecrest’s Cyfin and CyBlock products to manage employee Internet usage — managing cloud services and guest Wi-Fi networks, reducing liability risks, improving productivity, saving bandwidth, and controlling costs. Wavecrest has clients worldwide, including General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Florida Department of Health, Siemens, Department of Homeland Security, and a growing list of global enterprises and government agencies. Proud GSA contract holder for over 16 years and counting. For more information on the company, products, and partners, visit https://www.wavecrest.net.

Think defense.

ransom

Ransomware has the annoying characteristic of sneaking up on you. If you aren’t prepared, you may as well pay the ransom. Why? Because being prepared for loss of data is not at all difficult. First off–think old school . . . BACK UP, BACK UP, and BACK UP! This first very important step is that simple.

Think about what you do on your devices today, professionally or personally. We now live our lives in this digital environment. It is likely your use of technology has increased, even in the past year. This puts all of us at risk. Not just on our desktops either. Wired.com reports “these days ransomware doesn’t just affect desktop machines or laptops; it also targets mobile phones. Last week news broke of a piece of ransomware in the wild masquerading as a porn app. The so-called Porn Droid app targets Android users and allows attackers to lock the phone and change its PIN number while demanding a $500 ransom from victims to regain access.” Not many people could function today without access to their phones. Businesses are becoming more and more friendly to mobile devices as well. All this data floating around just makes it more appealing to hackers.

Where do we go from here? Back . . . back to backing up. Get that portable hard drive back out, dust it off, and use it. Yup . . . I did say that. Back it all up. Of course, for businesses it is more complex (and critical). But that is what cloud storage services are for. My only recommendation when it comes to off-site backups? Use more than one service. This way if anything does happen to your access to one backup, you will still have access to another. Inserting stern warning here: Do not store your passwords on your devices or in your backups unencrypted. If a hacker can access and lock up your systems, then he can find your passwords and have a go at them as well, including access to your backups.

Protect your business. Train your employees about new threats and monitor what is happening. Information is a gold mine–get visibility to see where your employees are going and then make some decisions that can protect your business. Ransomware can hit you through just a link in an e-mail. Make sure you have a solution in place that will help stop access to malicious Web sites.

We need to rethink the way we operate. It is just a shift, and if you just do it now, then you won’t be alarmed when you do get hit. Sadly, chances of a business being victimized by cybercrime are becoming more and more likely. Be prepared. And please, don’t let them win. The Internet has opened up so many opportunities for us and generations to come. Singapore is a perfect example of letting hackers win. They are moving to shut down Internet access for government computers, “from May next year and affect about 100,000 computers in use in the public service in the city-state, local media said.” (Reuters)

Do you think giving up Internet access will solve cybercrime?

We can help you find a better way.

About Wavecrest Computing

Celebrating 20 years in business, Wavecrest Computing, headquartered in historic downtown Melbourne, FL, has provided commercial business and government clients with reliable, accurate Web-use management and Cloud Access Security Broker products since 1996. Managed Service Providers, IT specialists, HR professionals, and business managers trust Wavecrest’s Cyfin and CyBlock products to manage employee Internet usage — managing cloud services, reducing liability risks, improving productivity, saving bandwidth, and controlling costs. Wavecrest has clients worldwide, including General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Florida Department of Health, Siemens, Department of Homeland Security, and a growing list of global enterprises and government agencies. We are a proud long-term GSA contract holder. For more information on the company, products, and partners, visit https://www.wavecrest.net.

Wavecrest, the leader in Web security, and Check Point have announced a partnership.

CF_Full_FWavecrest Computing, a leading global provider of advanced Web security solutions, and Check Point Software Technologies have announced a technology partnership.

Wavecrest’s Cyfin, along with Check Point log files, efficiently and accurately make for an easy-to-manage, cost-effective log file analyzer and reporter. This integration easily addresses collection and analysis of Web-use activity data by producing rapid, accurate, and actionable, manager-ready reports for audits, investigations, or distribution. Predefined reports, such as top users or sites, bandwidth, legal liability detail, and user audit detail, as well as the benefit for managers to run selected user reports by department, provide visibility into every aspect of enterprise Web-use activity. Learn more at: https://www.wavecrest.net