Tag Archives: internet filtering

Online Holiday Shopping: Here We Go Again

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It’s that time of year again! The big Christmas shopping spree. As in previous years, the online version ‘officially’ starts on Cyber Monday – the day after the big T-Day weekend. And now this year we’ve got Green Monday (December 7) and Brown Monday (December 14). These are days on which, like Cyber Monday, online retailers put on a full court press to draw in ‘surfer-shoppers.’

And the whole circus runs through New Year’s Day.

The volume can be huge and problematical for employers. A survey conducted for ISACA, an association of 86,000 information technology professionals, states in part:

“Employees plan to spend nearly two full working days (14.4 hours) on average shopping online from a work computer this holiday season. One in 10 plans to spend more than 30 hours shopping online at work. Convenience (34%) and boredom (23%) are the biggest motivators.”

“… the second annual “Shopping on the Job: Online Holiday Shopping and Workplace Internet Safety” survey found that half of those surveyed plan to holiday shop online using a work computer.

“Dangers of shopping online include viruses, spam and phishing attacks that invade the workplace, resulting in financial losses due to reduced productivity and destruction or compromise of corporate data.”

In addition to generating network security and performance issues, online holiday shopping is a huge productivity waster for businesses. When workers are shopping, they’re not ‘minding the store.’ Accordingly, this is a good time for all types of organizations to take stock of their Web-use management practices and seek help if needed.

Wavecrest Computing is ready to provide that help.

Wavecrest’s Cyfin and CyBlock products and services help all types of organizations manage and control inappropriate and risky personal surfing of all kinds, including shopping. Cyfin and CyBlock products do this by monitoring and/or filtering employees’ Web use and reporting on the activity by content categories, e.g., shopping, sports, games, and others. Of particular note, with regard to holiday shopping, CyBlock products can be set up to block Web access by categories and by hour so employees can access shopping sites on their lunch break or after hours. This approach can help sustain morale while minimizing the risks associated with online shopping.

For 13 years, Wavecrest Computing has been providing Internet filtering and monitoring solutions to business, government, and educational organizations worldwide.  Wavecrest’s customer base includes well-known names such as the HP, Procter and Gamble, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, Bridgestone, Mazda and many others.

Managing Groups and IDs in CyBlock and Cyfin

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There are two options for managing your Groups and IDs in Cyfin or CyBlock.  You can manage them either “Inside the Product” or “Outside the Product.”

By choosing to manage your Groups and IDs “Inside the Product,”  it means exactly that.  You can manually add, delete and move Groups and IDs in the product.  If you import your Groups and IDs from Active Directory or a text file, each time your Groups and IDs are imported either manually or scheduled, only NEW Groups and IDs will import.  The new Groups and IDs that are imported will be based on your configuration setup in the Active Directory Setup wizard.  Your existing Groups and IDs will not be modified, which means if a user left or moved departments, he/she will have to be deleted or moved in the product.  If you want to have users in the VIP group, you must use the “Inside the Product” option.

If you select to manage your Groups and IDs “Outside the Product,” then you will be only managing and making changes to your Groups and IDs at the directory source.  Each time Groups and IDs are imported, whether manually or scheduled from Active Directory or a text file, all Groups and IDs will be updated to identically match that configuration. Typically this option is not used because the directory source is grouped according to your network setup and not according to how you will want to apply Web-use policies.

New Releases: CyBlock 5.9.3 and Cyfin 7.9.3

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Wavecrest Computing recently released new versions of its CyBlock and Cyfin products. Some enhancements included are:

  • Enhancement – Arrays. More synchronization functionality has been added. Synchronization automatically takes place now when adding a new member (secondary machine) to an array. Also, using the synchronization button sends configuration parameters from the primary machine to all secondary machines. Note: This feature is not available for the CyBlock Appliance.
  • Enhancement – Backups. Product configuration data is now backed up daily and stored in compressed files. The ability to restore the product to any of your daily backups is now available at the Administration – Restore screen. Note: This feature is not available for arrays.
  • Correction – Screen name change. The screen Advanced Settings – Report Settings – Advanced Options replaces the screen that was initially named Advanced Settings – Report Settings – Preferences.

For full release notes on the products, please visit the forum at https://forum.wavecrest.net/index.php. Current customers can download the latest release from their product by going to the Administration – Product Update screen.

Concerned About Bandwidth Usage During March Madness?

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Bandwidth is a main concern for many businesses during this March Madness season.  Many must deal with employees using company resources to enter online office pools, blog about the top seeds, and watch live streaming games that take place throughout March and early April.

In fact, CBSsports.com is expecting even more viewers online this year. They expect the number of unique viewers for March Madness on Demand, to rise 50% to 7.2 million viewers.  With the massive number of sports Web sites and streaming games available, companies can expect to see a considerable drain on employee productivity and network bandwidth during the NCAA Tournament.

While you may or may not allow your employees to follow the games at work, you will want to ensure that it doesn’t interfere with your network.  Wavecrest Computing offers Internet filtering by category or site, white list filtering, real-time web monitoring and detailed Web-use reports on a particular category or site and bandwidth usage.  Some reports you can use to monitor bandwidth or access to sports sites are:

  • Site Analysis Bandwidth Report
  • Network Information Report
  • Category Audit Detail Report
  • Category Audit Summary Report
  • Site Audit Detail Report

Source: https://www.marketingshift.com/2009/3/cbs-expects-7-millon-online.cfm

New Releases: CyBlock 5.9.2 and Cyfin 7.9.2

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New versions of Wavecrest Computing’s CyBlock and Cyfin Internet filtering and monitoring software were recently released. Below is a list of some of the enhancements included in these versions.

  • Enhancement – Groups and IDs. Subgrouping up to 10 levels is supported.
  • Enhancement – Run Now. You can now run any scheduled report immediately. Simply go to the Reports – Schedule – Run Now screen and click on the report you want to run. The report will be delivered using the scheduled report settings you previously configured.
  • Enhancement – Array. The communication between computers in a Wavecrest product array has been enhanced to do authentication automatically. This prevents communication from halting when a “secondary” machine responds to a “primary” machine with an authentication request.
  • Enhancement – Safe Search (CyBlock ISA Only). The Google and Yahoo Safe Search is now fully implemented with this release. Go to the Setup – Filtering screen to enable this feature.

For full release notes on the products, please visit the forum at https://forum.wavecrest.net/index.php. Current customers can download the latest release from their product by going to the Administration – Product Update screen.

Increased Visits to Porn Sites At Work

With high unemployment rates and the potential of them rising even more, you would think that employees are doing whatever they can to be productive and keep their jobs.  Instead, according to a study by Nielson Online in October 2008, visits to porn sites at work is up 23 percent from the previous year.  This means that almost one quarter of employees are visiting porn sites during the workday.  “Hits to porn sites are highest during office hours than at any other time of day,” according to M.J. McMahon, publisher of AVN Online magazine, which tracks the adult video industry.

Some analysts believe that it has to do with the declining economy and people looking for an escape, while others speculate that it has to do with a younger generation in the workforce that has grown up accepting porn as a part of life.

Regardless, porn surfing at work poses a major legal liability risk for businesses.  This type of activity puts the employer at serious risk of being sued by other workers who are offended or upset by being exposed to pornographic images. Such suits usually take the form of ‘sexual harassment’ or ‘hostile workplace’ litigation and can be very costly in terms of damage to reputation as well as legal costs.  In addition to the legal costs, businesses also have to be concerned about costs due to loss of productivity.

In fact, the Senate Finance Committee is investigating the misuse of NSF computers by government officials to view online pornographic material. In one instance, the report cites an NSF “senior official” who allegedly spent 20 percent of his work hours “viewing sexually explicit” Web sites. This amounts to a potential loss of $58,000 in employee compensation.

According to Salary.com, the average employee wastes 2.09 hours a day on the Internet.  An average administrative employee costs a company $37.84 per hour according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics.  For a company with 1,000 employees, this amounts to over $18 million in productivity losses in a year.

A simple and cost-effective way employers can help ensure that employees use the Internet for productive purposes and not visit sites that pose a legal liability threat to the company is to filter and/or monitor Web access.  Wavecrest Computing offers Internet filtering and monitoring products CyBlock and Cyfin, to fit any organization’s needs.  The average cost for a Wavecrest product with a 1000-employee license is $3,500 per year. This is less than two tenths of one percent of the cost of lost productivity, making an Internet filtering or monitoring solution well worth the investment.

Sources:
https://www.newsweek.com/id/171279
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/28/grassley-launches-inquiry-widespread-porn-charges-nsf/

Configuration Backup for CyBlock and Cyfin

Before the end of the year, all of us at Wavecrest would like to wish all of our customers and readers a Happy Holiday and Happy New Year!  We also wanted to leave you with one final product tip for the year.

If you are ever concerned about losing your configuration in your CyBlock or Cyfin product, there is no need to worry.  A backup of the configuration files for your CyBlock or Cyfin product is created on a nightly basis in a folder called ‘restore’.  This backup is stored in daily files for the past 30 days.  Therefore, if you ever lose any configuration for any reason, our technical support team can retrieve this data from you. Simply contact technical support for instructions on sending the proper information, and they will extract the file and send it back to you.

You can contact technical support by phone at 321-953-5351, ext. 4 or by email at support@wavecrest.net.

More Cyber Monday Shopping Expected This Year

Cyber Monday is just around the corner, and this year, almost 84 percent of online retailers are planning Cyber Monday promotions.  Cyber Monday takes place the first Monday after Thanksgiving (December 1), i.e., the first day employees are back to work.  Last year, Americans made hundreds of online purchases and spent $733 million on Cyber Monday.

This year will not be any different, and in fact, more shoppers will probably be looking for online deals on Cyber Monday.  A survey conducted by BIGresearch found that 70 percent of young adults 18-34 with Internet access will shop at work.

Cyber Monday shopping and holiday shopping are huge productivity wasters for businesses.  Wavecrest’s products can help you block online shopping at work.  You can monitor and/or filter Web use with your Cyfin or CyBlock product by category, e.g., shopping, entertainment, sports, etc.  Wavecrest’s CyBlock products also allow you to block Web access by hour so that you can allow employees to access shopping sites on their lunch break or after hours.

Finding System Information for CyBlock or Cyfin

There’s a quick and easy way to get system and configuration information on your CyBlock or Cyfin product.  Just go to Help – System Information – Server Information on your product’s menu, and it will take you to the Server Information screen, which gives you the:

  • License Information
  • Number of Data Configurations (CyBlock ISA and Cyfin Reporter)
  • Install Directory Path
  • Communication Port
  • Memory Usage
  • URL List Configuration
  • Email Configuration


You will also find your various directory configurations on this screen for your Scheduler Directory, Email Reports and more.  This is a great screen to check out to find out how much available memory you have, if the URL list is properly configured, and where your configuration files are located.