Yearly Archives: 2010

Improve Your Web-Use Reports with Wavecrest’s OtherWise Service

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If you are an evaluator or customer of Wavecrest CyBlock and Cyfin products and are not already using our OtherWise service, we invite you to reduce the number of non-categorized sites and improve your reports . OtherWise is a voluntary and confidential program under which a site analyst will help you improve the quality and usability of your reports. This service is offered for free to all Wavecrest customers. To participate in OtherWise, follow these simple steps.

  1. Go to Reports – Schedule and click on the Create link.
  2. Select the Top Non-Categorized Sites report.
  3. For Report Delivery, select to email the report to other recipient, and type in sites@wavecrest.net in the text field.
  4. For the Timeframe, we recommend running the report weekly or monthly.
  5. Click Submit to save your changes, and the report will now be emailed automatically to our site analysts at Wavecrest on a weekly or monthly basis (depending on the frequency you selected).

From now on, no further action is needed on your part. A site analyst will review the report to categorize any non-categorized sites and if necessary, alert you if there is any suspicious activity.

Visit our Web site or contact us to learn more about our OtherWise program.

Setting the Time Zone in CyBlock Appliance

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If you notice that the set time zone in your CyBlock Appliance is incorrect, then simply follow the below instructions for checking and setting the time zone to the correct time.

  1. To check the date and time zone set in CyBlock Appliance, go to the screen https://yourappliance/help/systeminformation/shell/index.html. Use your server name or IP in place of “yourappliance.”
  2. Run the following command:
    date
  3. Hit Enter.
  4. You should now see the current set date and time for the Appliance.
  5. If it is not the correct date and time, then run the following command:
    date -s “20May 2010 16:00:00” (Type in the date and time that is current for your time zone.)
  6. Hit Enter, and this will set the appliance to the correct date and time.
  7. To double check that the appliance is now set to the correct date and time, run the date command again.

Web Filtering in the Workplace: Finding the Best Solution

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There are many issues surrounding Web filtering in the workplace today.  Among them are whether to filter or not filter, and if you do filter, how strict should your policies be, what’s the best way to implement a Web filter, and what’s the best type of filter for your organization?  Wavecrest Computing attempts to answer these questions and more in our latest white paper, “Web Filtering in the Workplace: Finding the Best Solution.”  This paper discusses some of the issues surrounding Web filtering today, the different types of Web filters, and how Wavecrest approaches filtering with its RealTimePlus Filtering technology.

White Paper: Web Filtering in the Workplace: Finding the Best Solution

Facebook Surpasses Google As Most Visited Site

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According to Hitwise research, Facebook recently passed Google as the top US site visited .  Traffic to both Facebook and Google make up a little over 14% of US website visits.

In your CyBlock or Cyfin product, Facebook is located in the Social Networking category, and you will find Google in the Search Engines category.  If you ever want to monitor these sites more closely, or any other sites for that matter, you can always place them in a custom category.

For more information on social networking in the workplace, read our white paper, “Social Networking or Social Not-Working?”. This white paper will help you determine if you need to block social networking at your workplace.

New Releases: CyBlock 6.2.0 and Cyfin 8.2.0

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New versions of CyBlock and Cyfin were recently released.  You can download the latest release by going to the Administration – Product Update screen. Below are a list of enhancements for each product.

CyBlock Proxy, Cyfin Proxy and CyBlock Appliance Enhancements

  • Proxy Server Authentication. New authentication options are now available on the Setup – Proxy screen.  Options include Strict, Moderate, and Disable (if disabled, IP addresses will be used).  The default setting is Moderate.  These options affect how bypass authentication is handled on the new Authentication Manager.
  • Authentication Manager. Complementing the new proxy server authentication options is the Authentication Manager. This screen allows the administrator to manage improperly authenticating URL/domains, web applications and user-agents. The Authentication Manager is located at Advanced Settings – Proxy Settings – Authentication Manager.
  • PAC File Configuration. This new screen allows for easy PAC file configuration that you can push out to all browsers. It is located at Advanced Settings – Proxy Settings – PAC File Configuration.
  • Product News. With this release, we have added the ability for administrators to get 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 ISA Enhancements & Updates

  • Forefront TMG Support. Support is now available for Microsoft Forefront TMG for both filtering and reporting.
  • Product News. With this release, we have added the ability for administrators to get product news alerts via email.  This setting is found on the Administration – Product News – Setup page.  NOTE: The default setting is “Do not email.”
  • ISA Server 2000 No Longer Supported. With this latest upgrade, there is no longer support for ISA Server 2000.

Cyfin Reporter Enhancements

  • New Logfile Support for the following:
    • Microsoft Forefront TMG Support
    • Watchguard Firebox 11 with Syslog
    • Astaro Security
  • Product News. With this release, we have added the ability for administrators to get product news alerts via email.  This setting is found on the Administration – Product News – Setup page.  NOTE: The default setting is “Do not email.”

Use the following links to access the full release notes for your Wavecrest product.

If you have any questions about any of the new features or upgrading, please contact Support.

Email: support@wavecrest.net
Phone (Toll-free): 877-442-9346, ext. 4 (U.S. and Canada)
Phone (Direct): 321-953-535, ext. 4

Stop A Pornography Surfing Problem Before It Starts: Why Monitoring Is Important

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USA Today reported today that “several top Security and Exchange Commission staffers surfed porn sites as economy teetered.”  While many of us like to think that “everyone” knows it’s inappropriate to surf porn at work using the office computer, time and time again stories like these still pop up.  While whether or not to allow social networking in the office and how to control the use of these sites seems to be the big surfing topic today, apparently we still cannot forget about pornography.  Pornography poses several risks to businesses and government agencies. These include productivity losses, security issues and legal liability.  No matter how strict or lenient your acceptable use policy is, one thing is clear.  Communicating your Web-use policy and regularly monitoring employees’ Web use is important.  You want to stop the problem before it starts or turns into an employee spending “up to eight hours a day looking at and downloading pornography.”

Source: https://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/04/ig-report-several-top-sec-staffers-surfed-porn-sites-as-economy-teetered/1

Set Your Block Policies For Newly Released Categories

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The new categories released and updated in your product on April 3 are set to “Allow” by default (for all CyBlock products).  This means that you will need to review these new categories and set your policy to “Block” those categories for which you want to restrict access.  Set your block policies at the Advanced Settings – Filter Settings – Block Web Categories screen.

For reporting and monitoring purposes, you may also want to change the new category’s classification statuses at the Advanced Settings – Category Setup – Classification screen to match your organization’s Acceptable Use Policy.

See the Category Update Data Sheet for a full list of categories and their descriptions.

Enforce Safe Search in Google, Yahoo and Bing with CyBlock

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If you haven’t already done so, check out the safe search feature in your CyBlock Proxy, CyBlock Appliance or CyBlock ISA product. With this feature, you can force Google, Yahoo and Bing to strictly use Safe Search. To enable it, go to the Advanced Settings – Filter Settings – Safe Search screen, check the enable box and hit Submit. When enabled, the product will reset search engines to “safe search” even if users change the preference in the search engine. This will block Web pages containing explicit sexual content from appearing in search results.

Note: Safe Search is available only in Versions 6.0.0 and later.

New Categories Coming April 3!

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New categories and category changes will automatically be updated in your product on April 3, 2010 for CyBlock Versions 6.0.0 and later or Cyfin Versions 8.0.0 and later.  If you do not have these versions of the product, you will need to upgrade to the most current version in order to get the new categories and category changes.

For CyBlock, these categories will be allowed by default. Therefore, you will need to go to your Advanced Settings – Filter Settings – Block Web Categories screen and alter your policies.  For reporting and monitoring purposes, you may also want to change the new category’s classification statuses at the Advanced Settings – Category Setup – Classification screen to match your organization’s Acceptable Use Policy.

See the Category Update Data Sheet for a full list of categories and their descriptions.

Check Your Product News to Get the Latest Updates

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You may notice that the icon below occasionally shows up in the right-hand corner of the browser interface indicating that you have new product news.

This icon will stay in the upper right-hand corner of the browser interface until you click on it to read your product news.

We send product news to let you know general and critical information about your product.  Product news items provide you with information on new releases, category changes, updates and more so be sure to check your news when the icon appears.

When viewing a news item, you will notice at the top that we indicate whether or not the news is critical or non-critical.  Critical news is identified with a red bar, meaning that it is very important that you read the message and may require some action, while non-critical news is identified with a green bar.