Tag Archives: reports

Wavecrest Computing Announces a New Product Release With Advanced Custom Reports

Wavecrest announces a new release that includes advanced customization of report templates for both Cyfin VM and CyBlock VM.

Wavecrest, a global leader in employee Web-use management, filtering, monitoring, and analytics solutions, today announced a new release for its Cyfin VM and CyBlock VM product deployments.

This release includes an exciting enhancement to customizable report capabilities. Product administrators can build more comprehensive tailored reports for any Web-use circumstance that is requested, with the focused information the requestor required, in an easy-to-read format. This report enhancement also allows IT, managers, HR, C-Suite, and others, to not only have portal access to the predefined reports, but also the saved custom reports. 

“Company stakeholders need employee Internet-use reports for running the business including driving productivity, evaluating security, and investigating legal liability issues,” notes Dennis McCabe, CEO of Wavecrest. “With the flexibility of Custom Reports, managers from any area within the company can easily decipher and evaluate the information they need, presented in the order and format they require. This not only allows for increased company collaboration but also provides immediate ROI with truly useful, actionable information on real Web browsing activity for every team within the business. Our goal at Wavecrest is always simple and intuitive navigation while providing significant increases in features and capabilities.”

Custom Report features are available in Cyfin Virtual Appliance, and CyBlock Virtual Appliance deployments.

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

About Wavecrest
Wavecrest has over 20 years of proven history of providing reliable, accurate employee Web-use management, filtering, and reporting products across all business types and sizes. 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. Proud GSA contract holder since 2000. For more information on the company, products, and partners, please visit https://www.wavecrest.net.

HR is best suited to bring all company stakeholders together to ensure safe and productive Internet access

employee Web-use management

My discussion here is about the suitability of HR being the hub for employee Web-use management where all company stakeholders are brought together to ensure safe and productive Internet use by all employees. For one, HR’s expertise typically includes personnel policy, codes of conduct, labor relations, workforce training, legal compliance issues, and workforce morale, all of which relate to the employee Web-use management issue. Because of their expertise in policy, training, and processes, HR is in the best position to coordinate the tasks of proposing and developing solutions to ensure that employee Web use is properly managed. After all, Web-use management is not just an IT issue. It is all about employee behavior, productivity, and morale. What Internet-use people issues are you seeing in your company? How are you solving them?

Communication is key in HR’s collaboration with managers, IT, and employees in the company. Starting at the top of the company, HR can educate senior managers on the importance of employee Web-use management, get their input, and keep them involved. By collaborating with IT whose access to highly accurate Web-use reporting and filtering tools can produce easy-to-consume Web activity data, HR can keep upper management apprised of pertinent employee Web behavior. This allows HR to contribute to the organization’s profitability and help keep the company out of severe legal difficulty–important business objectives for senior managers.

As the focal point in the employee Web-use management effort, HR can also schedule Web-use training programs for managers and employees, coordinating with Legal, IT, or department managers who observe a need or have the specific knowledge to train the workforce. Training could include instruction on the proper use of network resources, how to recognize a phishing e-mail message, how to detect malware symptoms, how to recognize and report other online threats, and other Web-use topics. Essentially, training would teach employees how to use Web access productively and safely. In this way, all areas of the company play an important role in proper network resources and policy training that would have a significant impact on corporate Web security. Are these types of training programs taking place in your company?

Another HR task would be to communicate the company’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) to the workforce by providing it in writing or electronically, requiring a signature to indicate acceptance of the policy. If you do not have a policy, HR, in collaboration with IT, Legal, and senior managers, would be well-suited to establish a sound AUP consistent with your company’s culture. Once the policy is created, HR can work with functional managers and IT to ensure optimum implementation of the policy. As Web activity is analyzed over time, HR can revise the policy as necessary. Managers and HR would work together to ensure employees are complying with the Web-use policy. Along with managers, HR would be involved in specific cases of policy noncompliance.

In communicating the policy to the workforce, HR would focus on promoting the interest of the company as a whole, while helping to maintain or improve employee morale. Managing employees’ use of Web-access resources is a sensitive and complex task, one that involves communicating with all groups–senior managers, managers, IT, and employees–and deals with policy, training, and continuous improvement processes. With HR as the hub, the continuous improvement process would involve the frequent review of employee Web use, new Web services introduced into the network, and new security threats, as well as modification of work processes and appropriate revision of the AUP.

All areas of the company can help manage employee Web use effectively. In the next articles, we will examine more closely IT’s role in employee Web-use management, the requirements of an effective Web-use management program, developing a sound AUP consistent with corporate culture, and other topics related to the human factor of data security.

Please let me know your thoughts on and reactions to this article and my questions by adding a comment. If HR is leading the Web-use management efforts in your business, in what other ways are they collaborating with others in the company?

CyBlock® and ConnectWise® – Integration for MSPs

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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.

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

compare-contrastWavecrest 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.

reportsDashboardTrendUsersCompare

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/Cyfin Release 9.2.0 Now Available

In Release 9.2.0, we are thrilled to announce the availability of reporting for your CyBlock Hybrid deployment. With this feature, you can monitor live Web traffic, run reports, and view Dashboard charts on your cloud users. Another CyBlock feature in this release is the ability to use Safe Search with YouTube to block adult content.

For Cyfin customers, log file detection is available to assist you in quickly creating a log file configuration. Cyfin will analyze your log files to determine the log file format for you. The enhancements are described below.

  • CyBlock Hybrid Reporting. The following features have been added:
    • When your local CyBlock installation is paired with your CyBlock Cloud account, the following occurs:
      • Cloud log files are imported nightly into the Report Database similar to your local logs.
      • Cloud log files are compressed when transferred.
      • A data configuration field is displayed on the following pages to allow you to view your cloud configuration, local CyBlock configuration, or all configurations if applicable.
        • Data Management – Log Data Source – Viewer
        • Data Management – Log Data Source – Revalidate
        • Data Management – Report Database – Import – Manual
        • Data Management – Report Database – Viewer
        • Data Management – Report Database – Delete – Manual
        • Real-Time Monitors – Web
        • Reports – Manager (all reports)
        • Reports – Dashboard (excluding Top Classifications, Top Coached, and Trend Classifications)
      • The cloud configuration is displayed as the pairing cloud server to which your local installation is connected, for example, cloud.cyblock.com.
    • Real-Time Web Monitor. The Real-Time Web Monitor displays the Web traffic of your cloud users. Messages are displayed if sync communication is temporarily stopped, your CyBlock installation and cloud account are unpaired, or the pairing cloud server is down for some reason.
    • Reports. Reports can be run to analyze the Web usage of your cloud users. Cloud reports are current as of the previous day. To get a report with the current day’s cloud data, you would need to perform a manual sync on the Settings – Hybrid screen, and then run the report. You can verify that cloud logs have been transferred by going to the Data Management – Log Data Source – Viewer screen.
    • Dashboard Charts. Dashboard charts show cloud Web activity for the top users, groups, categories, and sites, and provide trending for users, groups, categories, and denied and allowed traffic.
  • CyBlock Safe Search for YouTube. The ability to enable Safe Search for YouTube has been added. When Safe Search and SSL Inspection are enabled, adult content is blocked on YouTube regardless of its Restricted Mode setting.
  • Cyfin Log File Detection. The following features have been added:
    • On the Log Data Source Setup page, you have the option to manually select your log file type or have the system analyze your log files to detect the type.
    • If you choose “Analyze,” you can browse to locate a log file, and the analysis will display the closest matching log file types.
    • You can then select the log file type that is the closest match and continue the configuration process.
    • If no matching log file types are found, a link is displayed so that you can upload a sample log file to Technical Support for analysis.

There are also corrections in this release for CyBlock as well as Cyfin. To see the full release notes for your product, visit our Web site or knowledge base.

If you are at version 9.0.5 or later, you can upgrade to the latest release by going to the Help – Check for Updates screen in your product.

If you are at version 6.8.3.a or earlier, you can download the latest release by going to CyBlock Software Downloads or Cyfin Downloads. To upgrade CyBlock Appliance, please contact Technical Support at (321) 953-5351, Ext. 4 or support@wavecrest.net.

For additional assistance, please feel free to contact us.

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!

Make Sure Web Use Data Is Imported Without Error

When raw logfile data is being imported into the Data Manager, occasionally an error can occur with the import. If an error occurs and you are not aware of it, this data will not appear in reports, and data can be skewed. To avoid this, we recommend that you set the product to notify you if an error ever does occur with the import.

To set the email notification, go to Logfiles – Data Manager and click on the Settings link. Select the Enable radio button to Notify Admin of Errors and click Submit to save your changes. An email will now be sent to the Administrator email address that you set at the Setup – Email screen if there is ever an error with the import.

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

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.

New Releases: CyBlock 5.9.2 and Cyfin 7.9.2

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.