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Product Details

Internet security (2003)

There are many dangers in allowing your employees to access the internet. By controlling their online activity you are reducing the risks. By Craig Hinton

While it would be nice to think that everyone who has internet access in the workplace uses it to improve productivity and increase efficiency, we all know that this is far from the truth. Unlimited and unrestricted access can cause all manner of problems, and many companies either have no internet usage policy, or no idea how to enforce that policy.
One of the reasons for this is that internet use has grown organically over the last decade or so, and it has been difficult - if not impossible - for companies to keep track of developments in both technology and in the actual content of the internet.

Finding the right product

Companies need to exercise a degree of control over their employees' internet usage, and thankfully a number of vendors have recognized this and have produced products which allow internet security policies to be enforced. But what should be enforced?
In scoring the products in this Group Test, we were looking for solutions that integrated seamlessly with your existing network applications. For example, both WebSense and SmoothGuardian provided virtually all the security features an organization could require; however, the latter needs SmoothWall Corporate Server to be installed, while the former is integrated with the SonicWALL firewall. Users considering these products need to decide whether the additional cost is worth the additional protection.
We also scored the products according to ease of installation. Almost all of the products reviewed here were extremely easy to install without recourse to the documentation. In addition we looked at the reporting options available. While monitoring is important, the production of a detailed audit trail may be vital.
In purely financial terms, the most important aspect to consider is that of employees using their internet access to surf non-work-- related web sites. Many of the products in this Group Test allow network administrators to either forbid this, or to specify times when it is permitted. This has the added advantage of balancing the load on the bandwidth over the network.
This can be re-enforced by a list of either permitted or forbidden URLs - blacklists and white lists. Companies looking for an internet security solution should consider how much time their network administrators have available to ensure that these lists are kept both up to date and relevant. Some of the vendors in this Group Test have ensured that their blacklists are always current; you should also consider whether they can be customized to block sites specific to your organization.

Do not overlook messaging

One of the most time-wasting aspects of internet access is also one of the most overlooked: messaging services. Many companies simply do not realize the problems that instant messaging can cause; most instant messaging applications are designed to bypass firewalls, which means that viruses have a direct route into your corporate network. They are also infamous for allowing employees to spread classified information. Thankfully, some of the products reviewed here allow you to keep audit trails of instant messaging conversations, or to block them altogether.
Analyzing content is also extremely important. When looking at an internet security solution, you should consider whether it has a built-in anti-virus application, or that it integrates seamlessly with your existing anti-virus product. But, viruses are not the only downloads that you should be worried about: high-bandwidth objects such as multi-media files or .exe files which provide external parties with unrestricted access, for example.

Serious ramifications

Content analysis goes beyond this. There has been considerable media coverage of internet porn over the last few years; quite apart from the moral dimension, the legal implications are extremely important if you want to avoid litigation. While most of the products in this Group Test offer a degree of content analysis, some go one step further. Keyword searches provide some protection, but some applications also offer image scanning. While this technology is still in its infancy, it can reduce the number of offensive downloads considerably.
All of the products in this Group Test provided a high degree of protection. However, some were good in particular areas, and you should consider exactly what type of protection you require. Is your major concern instant messaging, or is it traffic management? Is it better for your organization to maintain a white list or a blacklist, or do you need to specify this on a user-by-user basis? How detailed do you need your reports to be?
There is no doubt that an internet security policy is vital to your business. But as with the majority of security products, you should perform an in-depth risk analysis of your entire organization - and then choose a product that matches your specific security needs.


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