Monday, 15 April 2013

What's the fastest-growing threat to most IT networks?

What poses the fastest-growing threat to most networks? Most organisations are experiencing the pain and costs of rising numbers of web-borne attacks against their networks & IT systems. Everything

Web-borne malware now poses the fastest-growing threat to most networks...

Are you doing enough to defend your systems & users?

GFI Software™ has announced the release of GFI WebMonitor 2013, the latest version of their Web security & filtering software used by small & medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

The new 2013 version enables IT managers to deploy a roaming Web filtering agent on laptop and notebook devices. With this new agent, businesses can extend corporate browsing policies to company IT assets running outside of the corporate network. This provides continuous filtering protection whether employees are in-house or out and about.

Small & Medium Businesses and other organisations have used Web filtering solutions, like GFI WebMonitor, to prevent the productivity, bandwidth and security issues associated with Web browsing in the workplace. But, with working from home on the rise and more companies giving employees laptops and notebooks to access corporate resources remotely, IT managers have lost visibility into browsing activity on work-issued devices.

This poses legal liabilities for the company, among other risks.

New Roaming Agent

To help businesses overcome this challenge, GFI WebMonitor’s new roaming agent extends corporate browsing policies and filtering protection to laptops and notebooks running outside of the corporate network – and does so without compromising connectivity speeds.

With this feature in place, IT managers can trust that road warriors, remote employees and workers who take their devices home at night are held to the same Internet usage policies that in-house employees follow. This capability is also beneficial for small businesses that use laptops and notebooks as their primary computing devices.

For maximum flexibility, GFI WebMonitor’s roaming Web filtering agent enables IT managers to create and apply different filtering policies depending on a device’s location. For example, streaming media may be allowed once a device leaves the corporate network, but specific categories of websites, such as gambling and adult sites, remain inaccessible.

Additionally, GFI WebMonitor is now able to log Web access activity occurring outside of the corporate network in addition to in-house activity and provide full reporting capabilities regardless of a user’s location.

“The line defining the amount of control IT managers can have over users’ activity on work-issued devices is always blurred,” said David Attard, product manager, GFI Software.

“A balance needs to be struck, as implementing too many browsing regulations can make employees unhappy and impede productivity. Yet, without enough controls in place businesses open themselves up to a variety of legal and security risks."

"GFI WebMonitor’s new roaming agent provides IT with the best of both worlds. They can give employees the freedom to use the Internet as they wish, while putting access controls in place to prevent them from visiting websites that could cause malware infections or legal liabilities. In other words, they can sleep well at night knowing their employees – and their business – are well protected.”

You can start a free trial of GFI WebMonitor here for 30 days...

If you'd like to find out more then Read About GFI WebMonitor or Ask An Expert