It is estimated that 85 Billion dollars annually is lost in productivity in the US from employees misusing the Internet. Misuse can range from downloading pirated software / media to viewing sexually explicit material. It is also estimated that 37% of US employees have visited an X-Rated sites from work and approximately one third of time spent online at work by employees is not work related.

In addition there are liability issues for companies who can be fined up to $150,000 if pirated works are obtained via the company network.

99% of companies use anti-virus software to protect their networks, nonetheless, approximately 82% of these companies were infected by viruses and or worms. As the technology powering the Internet evolves, so must the approach taken to protect it. Anti-Virus software fails to address things like server backdoors and website client script exploits and spyware.

The Internet is now saturated with spyware programs, with over 7,000 different types available. During a spyware audit in Q1 2005 it was found that excluding cookies, more than 55% of corporate PCs contained unwanted programs. There were an average of 7.2 non-cookie infections per PC. Spyware will usually track and report a user's browsing habits, sometimes including content in their reports. When a user visits an intranet site, the URL and the site content are sent to marketing servers which provide information to market researchers to target selected audience groups. In the process, spyware can leak proprietary company information by virtue of its existence.

Worse than spyware are Trojans, Keyloggers, and viruses. It has been found that 45% of executable files on Kazaa, a popular P2P network, are infected with this type of malicious software.

Content Filtering is another line of defence against these types of risks. Content filtering systems usually maintain a list of hosts, as well as dynamic content detection to block the threats. The lists are categorized by the type of site, with the categories blocking the specific types of content you wish to exclude. Examples of categories are: adult content, MP3s, gambling, and shopping. These systems are further configurable by applying blocking policies for a specific workstation or a group of workstations.

When a configured violation occurs, the systems can provide a "screen capture" of the violation containing the user name, date, time, and application. This can allow the company administration to take appropriate action to prevent future violation.

An even more impressive advantage of many Content Filtering systems is that they can be configured to block confidential information from leaving via the network. Many of these systems will also work not just on websites, but also Instant Messaging, File Sharing, and e-mail.

NetSieben Technologies can make recommendations on how to fix the issues identified, install content filtering technology and provide the necessary engineering resources to further protect the network from infiltration.

For more information or pricing please call us at (303) 543-0300 or fill out this secure form.