Web Security - How Does Web Filtering Benefit My Business?

If your business is like most others, you rely on the internet to complete business oriented tasks at some level. Whether it’s to re-order inventory, office supplies or other details like reporting worker’s weekly hours, the internet is a valuable tool that makes business easier on a lot of levels.

With this ease also comes the reality that the internet poses serious security threats to your business computer network and can result in lost productivity from employees that are surfing the ‘net for personal reasons while they’re “on the clock.”

Web Filtering Protects Business Data

How exactly can web content filtering improve and benefit my business?

Web content filtering benefits your business in two major ways.

First, it protects your local network by detecting malicious codes in links and URL’s that could infect and damage your computers. This is important because there are millions of new domains registered every year and not all of them have good intentions for the people that visit them. Additionally, phishing attacks including spearphishing attempts sent via Email try to allure people to click on malicious links that expose your network to security vulnerabilities.

These types of underhanded attacks cause serious headaches for business owners and IT departments alike.

If just one of your employees clicks on an infected link that’s sent via Email or by opening links on an untrusted website, business owners run the risk of potentially infecting their entire computer network, sharing sensitive data with the shady operators and sending the virus along to everyone that’s contained in your Email contact list. Recent intrusions like the Stuxnet, MyDoom and the ILOVEYOU worms spread quickly as unsuspecting people clicked on links or opened file attachments in malicious Emails sent to them. These worms need to be stopped before they can do harm to your organization.

Secondly, web content filtering improves employee productivity by setting limits on access to distracting websites that aren’t pertinent to their job. Web content filtering helps control bandwidth needs by limiting access to sites that provide streaming video or require downloads or that are used for personal reasons such as social media, gaming, gambling, viewing pornography or other non-work related activity. This type of network control mitigates legal liability and harassment matters resulting from the viewing, distributing or storing of illegal, copyrighted or trademarked content while on the job. Furthermore, web content filtering can be used to enforce or comply with internal Acceptable Use Policies or external regulatory laws, such as CIPA, by monitoring, auditing and filtering access to websites deemed unacceptable.

Internet filtering serves two very important roles in managing your company efficiently - by providing web protection to your local area network and by limiting your employees ability to access websites that contribute to lost time on the job and other liabilities.

If you’d like to improve productivity and reduce the risk of network intrusions, we can help! Our software based web content filtering solution is easy to deploy and requires no hardware or costly up front fees to get started.

Please click here to request a no-obligation free quote on web security solutions to alleviate risks for your business.