Offering guest Wi-Fi is expected. Securing your guest Wi-Fi is required.

The family vacation–everything is packed. One suitcase for each family member, and one suitcase for all the devices! Of course your hotel offers guest Wi-Fi!

In the hospitality industry, offering guests Wi-Fi access has become expected. In fact, Hotel Chatter reported 94% of people cite Wi-Fi as the most important amenity, and 38% of those say no Wi-Fi is a deal-breaker and will book elsewhere!

Unfortunately, what happens on your guest Wi-Fi network can put your whole enterprise at risk, including all your other guests. A lagging Internet connection issue can frustrate and damage your relationship with customers, situations such as compliance issues or legal liabilities can damage your brand, and data loss due to malware from the guest network can cause enormous headaches from losing guests’ trust to financial damages and lawsuits.

Protect your business and guests with a strong enterprise Web security gateway with guest Wi-Fi protection, CyBlock Appliance. With your personalized captive portal message and your guests’ simple acceptance of your published Acceptable Use Policy, CyBlock Appliance guest network protection will allow you to:

Secure guests’ Web usage while on your network, no matter what device they are using.

Filter inappropriate or legal liability sites.

Restrict guests’ time online.

Run informative reports on their HTTP and HTTPS traffic.
Track and throttle bandwidth usage, and more.

All of this, without any noticeable delay in your guests’ Web browsing or work!

CyBlock Appliance is advanced threat protection hardware that includes tools to manage guest Wi-Fi, reduce the risk of Web-borne threats such as malware and ransomware, avoid bandwidth slowdown, and more.

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.

CyBlock® and ConnectWise® – Integration for MSPs

Wavecrest Computing is excited to announce a new feature for its Managed Service Provider (MSP) offerings, CyBlock Cloud’s integration with ConnectWise!

The CyBlock integration is built to provide comprehensive Web-use security and analytics along with the time-saving management of the leading ConnectWise Professional Services Automation (PSA) platform. With only one click between ConnectWise and the CyBlock Cloud MSP Partner Portal, MSPs can now automatically populate new client information in the ConnectWise interface, track and manage CyBlock Cloud licenses, proactively pursue timely renewals, and more. This integration is focused on saving time and improving efficiencies, allowing for increased new and recurring revenue, customer satisfaction, and crucial time to focus on mission-critical issues.

CyBlock Cloud for MSPs is a leading Web-use security, analytics, and reporting solution that will fit any MSP client business size or industry type and requires no hardware or software to buy and install, and no maintenance. Monitor, filter, and analyze data to help protect customers from Web-borne threats, such as malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks, while providing useful, time-saving tools, for example, automatically distributed, manager-ready reports, alerts when thresholds are reached, and trusted coverage over any distributed workforce.

“Wavecrest has a great managed service partner program that allows MSPs easy access to manage their CyBlock clients’ needs from anywhere, at any time. Now, we are excited to work with ConnectWise to increase the convenience to MSPs even more. MSPs can now manage their CyBlock Cloud clients directly in the ConnectWise user interface, saving time and expense that they can then use to increase revenue and focus on mission-critical issues,” explains Dennis McCabe, co-founder and President of Wavecrest Computing. “We know that time is money. Developing ways to help MSPs find more time and increase revenue while offering a product and service that surpasses expectations makes us proud of what we do, and motivated to do much more.”

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 Provider (MSP), 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.

Always question the “all-in-one solution” solution.

Surveys and statistics still tell us that one of the most important things a business can do is see what is going on within their business. In the past, a business owner or manager could visually see productivity, equipment misuse, or when they were vandalized. Now we rely on digital devices and clouds to handle so much of how our business is run that it is impossible to rely on hands-on owners or managers to see any issues.

When you did your security research, you were most likely reminded that one device or solution will not solve everything. The main takeaway from those reminders–be leery of the product that says it will. Most businesses, big or small, need layers of solutions to truly protect their assets. The problem that is now arising is that big box companies are selling what they like to call an all-in-one solution. This is a fallacy. One solution is not going to cover all your threats from outside or inside the company. They may offer some version of a lot of different things, but we all know that businesses have focused goals. For many of the larger companies, it is to sell large hardware packages such as a firewall that comes with add-ons.

Okay, so we should all know . . . you need a firewall! But when they tell you to give up your focused URL filtering reports because they have one built-in, think twice before you sign on thinking you are getting the same capabilities. They do not specialize in these included or add-on features. The feature they provide will give you a minimal amount of dry, flat, and unresponsive tools. Yes, you have their firewall and that is a good thing, but question whether you can really use what they provide for the security beyond firewall functionality. Today, security is not just about the firewall.

Things to always check for when reviewing included or add-on solutions:

Drill-down, forensic-level reporting detail.
Interactive features by user, group, category, etc.
Manager portal to get managers the information then need without having to schedule time for IT.
Comprehensive and current URL categories, including designated cloud services.

Do not believe you have to settle for what is included in your all-in-one package. Wavecrest Computing’s advanced employee Web-use monitoring & analytics solution, Cyfin, will provide clear, detailed, and interactive reporting with automatic log file analysis and detection to work with virtually any gateway device and log file format including Palo Alto, Check Point, Forcepoint (Websense), SonicWALL, WatchGuard, and more.

About Wavecrest Computing

CyBlock/Cyfin Release 9.2.4 Now Available

In Release 9.2.4, we are excited to announce the integration of CyBlock Cloud with ConnectWise PSA software providing MSPs with the ability to manage their cloud customers from within ConnectWise. MSPs can easily integrate with ConnectWise and get access to their CyBlock Cloud portal.

For CyBlock Appliance customers, managing your direct HTTPS traffic has been improved allowing you to secure your guest Wi-Fi network. You can now enforce blocking policies on both direct HTTPS traffic as well as direct HTTP traffic.

Two other enhancements help you manage your Dashboard database size and your disk space. The Storage Limit feature for Dashboard databases purges past data beyond a time period that you set. The Log File Removal feature allows you to remove log files that are no longer necessary. Log files can be deleted manually or scheduled for daily deletion.

Another enhancement is the consolidation of the Logon Accounts screens providing a more streamlined way to manage logon accounts and easier navigation of the screens. These and other enhancements are highlighted below.

ConnectWise Integration (CyBlock Cloud)
- To use this feature, MSP Partners will need to create an integrator logon in ConnectWise and then configure ConnectWise in CyBlock Cloud. You will be able to access Wavecrest vendor information as well as a menu link to your CyBlock Cloud MSP Partner Portal in ConnectWise.
- MSPs can then integrate their customers and will see a license configuration in ConnectWise for each of their customers.
Managing Direct Traffic (CyBlock Appliance)
- CyBlock Appliance now monitors and filters direct HTTPS traffic along with direct HTTP traffic. Read the product documentation for information on setting up the DNS server.
- The Web Redirects page has been renamed “Direct Traffic” and allows you to enable policy enforcement on direct HTTP/HTTPS traffic, exclude network source IP addresses from redirection, and exclude destination IP addresses/domains from filtering.
Dashboard Data Storage Limit (CyBlock Appliance, CyBlock Software, Cyfin)
- The Storage Limit feature allows you to manage the size of your Dashboard database and keep it at optimum performance by purging past data.
- After upgrading the product, the storage limit is set to 3 months, and any data older than this will be deleted at the default scheduled time.
  NOTE: If you wish to retain more than 3 months of data, change this option on the Data Management – Report Database – Configuration – Settings screen after upgrading. Other options available are 6 months and 1 year.

Log File Removal (CyBlock Appliance, CyBlock Software)

The new Data Management – Log Data Source – Delete screen helps you manage disk space by removing log files that are no longer required.
You can select the time period for the log files you want to retain. You can also select to either delete log files manually at the current time or schedule a daily deletion to occur.

Logon Accounts Consolidated
- In the User Management – Logon Accounts menu, the menu items Add, Modify (if applicable), and Delete have been consolidated for easier navigation of the screens. These functions can now be performed from the User Management – Logon Accounts screen.
- Your list of accounts is displayed where you may add, view, edit, and delete a logon account as well as change the account password as applicable.
- You can hover over an account to display available icons for changing the account password, and editing (if applicable) and deleting the account.
Live Chat
- In product evaluations, assistance is available where you can talk to Sales or Technical Support over live chat. This feature is another way in which you can ask questions about our products. Just click Chat With Us at the bottom of the window.
- Live chat is also available on our Web site, blog, and knowledge base. Chat online with Sales or Technical Support in real time.

There are also corrections in this release. To see the full release notes for your product, visit our Web site or knowledge base. You can upgrade to the latest release by going to the Help – Check for Updates screen in your product.

For additional assistance, please feel free to contact us.

Think defense.

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

Productivity in a Time of Endless Distractions

Employees have access to all kinds of digital distractions every minute of the day. So, businesses have to make a decision what is acceptable for Internet use when employees are on the clock. This decision can be hard. There are many who think of privacy issues, not wanting to deter human interaction, or who even have a “my managers watch over their employees so I leave it to them” thought. The only real problem is . . . it’s your business that will suffer if Internet-usage privileges are abused on a regular basis. Bandwidth slowdowns and productivity loss, not to mention increased malware risk, can have a substantial impact on your business. No matter which decision you make for your business, you still need to know what is happening to keep your company, your data, and your employees secure and productive.

You need visibility. If you keep up with our Wavecrest posts, we tend to emphasize this point a lot. Why? Because it is a crucial business tool for today’s digital workplace! You have to know what is happening in your business and on your network so you can make informed business decisions. In this particular case, you need visibility into employees’ time spent online.

Wavecrest Computing’s Time Online feature provides the time that a user spends on the Internet in a useful and informative format with easy-to-interpret charts. Find out which users spend the most time online, spot spikes, and analyze usage for productivity issues or potential bandwidth hogs. Each business is unique and your Internet-use policy should fit your specific business needs. Find the visibility necessary to keep productivity high and mission-critical operations running smoothly, with Cyfin and CyBlock solutions from Wavecrest Computing.

About Wavecrest Computing

Have even more visibility with Wavecrest’s new comparison feature!

Wavecrest is pleased to announce an informative new feature that is now included with the latest versions of CyBlock and Cyfin. Now you can compare Web activity trends in selected date ranges to find anomalies or spikes in usage, compare series activity by metric such as Visits, or view the percentage change in activity from the previous to the current period.

The more visibility you have into your company’s Web activity, the more informed your Web-use decisions are. Each business is unique–you make the decisions on what is acceptable or not! Determine these policies, add them to your enterprise Acceptable Use Policy, and proactively protect your business, your data, and your employees.

About Wavecrest Computing

Potential Victims to Very Smart Thieves

Employees need to know what their employers’ philosophy is behind technology. Does my employer want me to use whatever app I choose? Can I just store and share work information where it is most convenient for me? Will my employer listen when I explain how much my cloud app does to improve my workflow? If you as the employer listen, you could save your business from an incident or a serious breach.

It is amazing that the news is filled with data breach, data loss, ransomware, and spear phishing, and yet many businesses still think they are immune from an attack. If you are connected to the Internet, you are a highly susceptible victim. Do not take this to mean that you should not run your business with the highly efficient and collaborative tools that cloud services offer. It just means think and act to protect your enterprise assets and employees.

Let’s first cover where a major number of incidents start. Your enterprise weakness . . . the employee. It doesn’t matter if you have the best employees in the universe, they are human. Hackers perfect the way they attack; that is their job. They have become so good at what they do that good employees send out W-2s, transfer millions to banks in foreign countries, and hand out their logon credentials without question.

Now let’s talk about what you can do to help your employees to not become victims.

Educate them; make them a part of the process. Communicate. It is everyone’s fight.
Go ahead and make your most techy employee an honorary go-to person for others with questions.
Gain visibility with proactive monitoring tools. Trust me–this is not an employee privacy invasion. You need to know what is going on first; then make informed decisions.
Make sure there is a process in place for an employee who questions something. Make the process part of your Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).

And then the important basics we all know, but are worth repeating . . .

Back up regularly and make sure your recovery process is tried and true. Think ransomware attack recovery, so keep it where you can get to it but others can’t.
Patch – There is no longer an option to do updates. Many are for security, so just do it and do it consistently. It’s patch management, not patch whenever.
Passwords – Maintain, manage, and get creative. Use a password manager if needed.
Off-boarding – Make sure to purge all credentials for ex-employees or contractors. How do you know if they are still there? Monitor!!
Layered security – Get a firewall, but don’t expect all-in-one add-ons to be impressive. For example, don’t expect the firewall Web-use reporting feature to provide comprehensive and interactive reporting capability. Invest in the solution that means serious employee Web-use reporting business–no more wishy-washy reports that are useless.

Think and act to protect your enterprise assets and employees. Take some time to communicate with your employees about the exploits that they may fall prey to. It is not their fault; they are not an “insider threat” but a potential victim to very smart thieves.

About Wavecrest Computing

CyBlock/Cyfin Release 9.2.3 Now Available

In Release 9.2.3, you will find several enhancements in the new version of CyBlock and Cyfin. In CyBlock Appliance, logon accounts can now be created for additional administrators as well as managers, allowing managers to generate their own reports. With the Logon Account feature, new account users will receive an e-mail with logon information. They can then log on with their logon name or e-mail address. This applies to CyBlock Software and Cyfin as well.

In Cyfin, many improvements have been made to log file configurations, such as adding new log file configurations, removing log file configurations that are no longer shipped with the product, improving the performance of log database configurations, and attempting to match all existing configurations when analyzing log files.

Other enhancements include updates to the Dashboard trend charts, Time Online metric, Visit Filter, memory settings, and Wavecrest root certificate. The enhancements are highlighted below.

Logon Accounts in CyBlock Appliance. The following features have been added:
- You now have the ability to add, modify, and delete logon accounts for administrators and managers (operator accounts) for reporting purposes.
- Go to User Management – Logon Accounts – Add to create a logon account.
  - You may create an account using Active Directory authentication if an Active Directory configuration exists in the product.
  - An e-mail is sent to the account user indicating that the account was created and providing logon information.
  - If the logon account was not created with Active Directory, a temporary password is provided which needs to be changed after the initial logon, before the product can be used.
  - Users can log on with their assigned logon name or e-mail address, or network credentials if you are using Active Directory.
- Go to User Management – Logon Accounts – Modify to modify previously established logon accounts.
  - If the Generate New Password option is selected, a Password Reset e-mail is sent to the user with a temporary password. The user will also receive a Password Changed e-mail after changing the password.
  - If the e-mail address is changed in the logon account, the user will receive the Account Created e-mail with new logon information.
- Go to User Management – Logon Accounts – Delete to delete previously established logon accounts.
Log File Configurations in Cyfin. The following features have been added:
- On the Data Management – Log Data Source – Setup screen, in the Type of Log File drop-down box, the following log file configurations have been added:
  - Fortigate 5.0
  - McAfee SaaS CSV (No Time Zone)
  - McAfee SaaS CSV (Time Zone)
  - SonicWALL Syslog
  - Symantec Cloud
  - WatchGuard Syslog*
  - WatchGuard Syslog (HTTP)*
  - WatchGuard Syslog (HTTPS)*
  - ZScaler CSV
  * For more information, see Selecting WatchGuard Log File Configurations in Cyfin.
- In the Type of Log File drop-down box, log file configurations have been removed as they are no longer shipped with the product. However, existing configurations will continue to work. If the removed log file configurations are needed, contact Technical Support.
Dashboard Trend Chart Comparisons. The following features have been added:
- In the trend charts, you can now compare the Web traffic for a predefined date range with a previous period to detect any anomalies in Web activity.
- The predefined date range is shown as a line series, and the equivalent previous period is shown as a filled series.
- A Tooltip shows activity by metric, such as Visits, as well as the percentage change in activity from the previous to the current period.
Dashboard Time Online Metric. The Time Online metric has been added to the Top Users and Trend Users Dashboard charts. Time Online is an approximation of the time that a user spends on the Internet, based on the time stamps from Internet requests made as the user browses Web sites, the average number of minutes for reading a specific Web site, and the time spent reading the last Web site before the end of the browse session.
Visit Filter. The Visit Filter is now enabled by default when upgrading the product or installing a new version. The default time period is set to 3 seconds.
Memory Settings. For new installations, the default memory setting is now 512 MB. For optimal performance, it is recommended that you choose the setting that is approximately half of your available memory (RAM).
Wavecrest Root Certificate. The root certificate has been updated to be more secure and to reduce errors or warning prompts. Existing customers will need to install the new certificate. For installation instructions, see Wavecrest Certificate Installation Guide.

There are also a number of corrections in this release. To see the full release notes for your product, visit our Web site or knowledge base. You can upgrade to the latest release by going to the Help – Check for Updates screen in your product.

For additional assistance, please feel free to contact us.

Feeling neglected? Let’s fix that.

It seems the newly named Forcepoint has finally settled into the company they planned since the Raytheon acquisition of Websense. As a Websense customer before the acquisition, are you feeling a bit neglected now? In this new corporate culture, are you finding it difficult to get a hold of technical support or that customer service is not there when you need them? Could it be that their focus is more on the larger Raytheon cyber security customer base than on their Websense customers? Whichever the case, your business is the one that suffers. Stop spending your precious time on working through multiple levels of bureaucracy to get what you need.

Wavecrest has 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. No matter your business size, industry, or distributed workforce, Wavecrest has a solution for you.

Retaining a positive SMB mentality, the Wavecrest team believes strongly in one-on-one communication with prospects, customers, and partners. When you reach out to us, we have a human being on the other end of the line that knows the product well, communicates well, and will take the extra step to get your enterprise and employees secure. You don’t have to go through automated calls, ticketing, or several levels of technical support to reach the person with the knowledge you need.

Leave the government contractor-level pricing, contractual terms, and confusion behind. Don’t remain just a ticket number. Let Wavecrest focus on your business and your specific requirements. Talk to us today.

About Wavecrest Computing

Wavecrest Blog

The Latest news, tips and resources straight from the Wavecrest team.

Offering guest Wi-Fi is expected. Securing your guest Wi-Fi is required.

Always question the “all-in-one solution” solution.

CyBlock/Cyfin Release 9.2.4 Now Available

Productivity in a Time of Endless Distractions

Have even more visibility with Wavecrest’s new comparison feature!

Potential Victims to Very Smart Thieves

CyBlock/Cyfin Release 9.2.3 Now Available

Feeling neglected? Let’s fix that.