Tag Archives: web-use reporting

CyBlock Web Security Solution is now available in the Cloud

 Melbourne, FL, Dec. 9, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Wavecrest Computing, the makers of CyBlock, have just announced the availability of a Cloud version of CyBlock. Now companies have access to the most popular and solid Web Security solution in the Cloud.

CyBlock Cloud Web Security is an easy-to-implement solution that benefits organizations of all sizes and quickly safeguards your network. Whether you have branch offices, remote users, or just one location, CyBlock Cloud protects your company and its employees allowing you to take advantage of time and money savings. Enforce your company’s AUP by defining one or more Web-use policies to successfully address Internet abuse, legal liability, workforce productivity, and Web security threats.

“We are very excited to be extending our product line into the Cloud market. Now, new and existing customers who are considering a cloud solution have one less worry. Starting today they can access an industry tested and proven solution with a successful 13 year track record. CyBlock Cloud is a perfect addition to Wavecrest’s line of industry leading Web Security Solutions.” CEO – Dennis McCabe

Wavecrest Computing has been the recognized leader in Web-access security and Web-usage forensics solutions for the last 16 years. Our scalable filtering and forensic reporting analysis products are designed to enable organizations to successfully address Internet abuse, legal liability, workforce productivity, and Web security threats. Wavecrest Computing’s client list includes well-known corporations such as Edward Jones, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Blue Cross Blue Shield, MillerCoors, Rolex, Siemens, and others.

Link to Press Release.

Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday Approach: Watch Your Employees

Door-busters, Black Friday, Cyber Monday: According to Visa, 140 million people plan to shop over Thanksgiving weekend this year – a significant decrease from the 247 million who did so in 2012. Nonetheless, 37% of Americans said they will shop on Black Friday, while 34% plan to shop on Cyber Monday. And that means security risk for companies, whose employees will undoubtedly be shopping online during work hours.

To view the full article click here.

March Madness

Wavecrest Computing has heard about it every year for 15 years–companies complaining that their bandwidth is slow and their overall productivity is down, all during March and early April! What is going on? Madness, they say…March Madness!

The bandwidth strain can be a big problem. According to a recent survey, 66 percent of workers say they’ll follow the games during work hours, with 20 percent expecting to spend one to two hours following games, 14 percent spending three to four hours, and 16 percent saying they will spend five hours or more watching games instead of working.*

How do you control this type of bandwidth usage? 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 of the many Wavecrest CyBlock features that monitor bandwidth or access to sports sites are:

  • Real-Time Bandwidth Monitor
  • Top Sites Bandwidth Chart
  • Top Groups Bandwidth Chart

For more information on CyBlock and a free trial download, see CyBlock Core Features.

* March Madness – Challenger, Gray and Christmas, Inc. 3/13/2013

What’s Hogging Your Company’s Bandwidth? Causes for Slow Network Speed this Holiday.

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If you haven’t noticed, online holiday shopping lasts well beyond Cyber Monday.  According to a ComScore report, after the 2010 holiday shopping season, more than 85% of Americans online visited a retail site in December of last year.  Employees shopping online at work are likely causing critical applications, like Voice over IP (VoIP) and video conferencing, to perform poorly if at all.  The last thing you and your company need is network latency or slowdowns due to non-work related online activity.  Many of our clients are seeing a spike in bandwidth usage from shopping websites and have quickly taken measures to filter browsing to that category.  Which sites consumed the most bandwidth for your company this month?  Determine what factors are impacting your network speed before you decide to purchase more bandwidth – an expense that could be avoided with the right tools and a bit of discipline.

With 19 different types of highly customizable employee Web-use reports, Cyfin Reporter offer insights as to which types of traffic consume the maximum volume throughout the workday.  Monitor, filter, and report over 500 million Web pages in 74 categories and set throttling thresholds for sites that are slowing your company’s Internet speed with CyBlock Proxy.  Now is the time to address your poor network performance, slow applications, and bandwidth congestion.

We’re so sure you’ll benefit from our solutions that we offer a free 30-day product trial. Both products provide quantified data to help IT personnel keep track of bandwidth utilization by users as well as by type of usage (appropriate versus not so appropriate). After you’ve downloaded our products, take advantage of the User Comparison Trend Chart to detect unexpected spikes that could indicate excessive bandwidth or Web use.  Then review your Top Sites Bandwidth Chart (example seen below) and find out which ten sites are consuming the most bandwidth or had the most hits or visits for the time period you specify.

Top Sites Bandwidth Chart

 

Top Sites Bandwidth Chart for both Cyfin and CyBlock

Upgrade Today! New Releases for CyBlock and Cyfin

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We’re thrilled to bring you more new features in our latest releases of CyBlock and Cyfin. In CyBlock Version 6.3.3 and Cyfin Version 8.3.3, we are happy to deliver you with the following:

  • Classification Policies. New classification policies can be created and saved for use in manual and scheduled reports. The policies can be created and selected from a new option on the Reports – Manual and Reports – Schedule screens. Two named classification policies are provided with this release: Default and No Classification. The default classifications policy is set at the Category Setup – Classify Categories screen, and no classification means that no classifications will appear in the report.
  • Dashboard Drill-down. Drill-down reporting has been added to the Dashboard Top Users and Top Categories charts. When clicking on a user from the Top Users chart, a User Audit Detail report will automatically run, and when clicking on a category from the Top Categories chart, a Category Audit report will automatically run.
  • Download Restore Points. The ability to download and save a restore point for product settings has been added. The restore points can be downloaded from the Administration – Restore – Download screen.
  • Email Notification When License Exceeded (CyBlock Only). If the number of filtered users exceeds what the product license allows, an email notification will be sent to the product’s administrator every three days.
  • Using Active Directory for Access Accounts. A “Lookup” link has been added to the Advanced Settings – Access Accounts screen. When using Active Directory authentication for access accounts, clicking this link will cause the full name and email address for the access account to be automatically populated from Active Directory.

To see the full release notes for your product, visit the Support Forum. You can download the latest release by going to the Administration – Product Update screen in your CyBlock or Cyfin product.

Make Sure Web Use Data Is Imported Without Error

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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.

Display ID and IP in Wavecrest’s CyBlock and Cyfin Reports

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There is an option to display both the user ID and IP address in reports. To do so, go to the Advanced Settings – Report Settings page in your CyBlock or Cyfin product and open the Advanced Options link. On this screen, you will see an option to “Display Login Name and IP Address.” Simply click the checkbox so that it is enabled and click Submit. Now you will see both login names and IP addresses when running user reports.

The World Cup Means Time Wasted at Work

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The 2010 FIFA World Cup games begin today and will run until July 11.  Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a research firm that deals with lost workplace productivity, ranks the World Cup as one of the biggest time wasters in the workplace worldwide.  And it’s not just time that World Cup viewers will suck up in the workplace.  Bandwidth consumption will also increase with the availability of video streaming of the games.

While the World Cup ranks number 4 in the US as a top time waster behind March Madness, the Super Bowl and Fantasy Football, it will still cost American companies about $121.7 million in lost productivity.  The British economy, however, is looking to lose about $7.36 billion in productivity, according to the British law firm Brabners Chaffe Street.

Wavecrest’s Cyfin and CyBlock products and services help all types of organizations manage and control employee Web activity. Cyfin and CyBlock products do this by monitoring and/or filtering employees’ Web use and reporting on the activity by content categories, e.g., sports, social networking, games, and others. Of particular note, with regard to the World Cup, CyBlock products can be set up to block Web access by categories and by hour so employees can access sports sites on their lunch break or after hours. This approach can help sustain morale while minimizing lost productivity and bandwidth associated with the World Cup.

Sources:
https://blogs.reuters.com/shop-talk/2010/06/08/world-cup-is-no-march-madness-in-sapping-productivity/
https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/blog/2010/06/world_cup_promises_some_kick_to_productivity_apps_aim_to_help.html
https://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/060608/8worldcup.htm

New Releases: CyBlock 5.8.7 and Cyfin 7.8.7

I am thrilled to announce that several enhancements were recently made to Wavecrest Computing’s Cyfin and CyBlock products. These include:

New Scalability. The latest versions of CyBlock Proxy and Cyfin Proxy include high-performance scalability. These new scalable multiplexed proxy servers replace the previous thread-based versions, meaning that they can handle large numbers of users and requests. These new versions will:

  • react quicker to new requests
  • minimize resource contention
  • tolerate slow or unresponsive clients and servers more efficiently.

Enhanced Reporting Options. Several enhancements were made to the Web-use reporting features for all products. These include:

  • a new “Last 24 Hours” time frame option
  • the ability to name scheduled reports
  • the ability to enter other email addresses to receive scheduled reports.

Array Configuration. The array feature is now available for blocking policies in the latest version of CyBlock ISA. 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.