Controlling Internet access at the application layer

In the 1990’s, admins could control Internet access using outbound access control lists on their firewalls. In the last decade or so, forward web proxies evolved that could make decisions based on URLs. More recently, Internet usage has evolved well past simple layer 3 and layer 4 solutions.

Admins are responsible for compliance, and users have hundreds of ways to accidentally leak information or violate policy. You want to permit your users to access the web and all the good it has to offer, but you need to protect your users, your business and your customers from all the bad. What do you do? To best ensure that your users are safe, your data is secure, and your customers trust your company with their business, you have to move your controls up the stack into the application layer. And that is where GFI Web Monitor 2015 comes in. Let’s look more closely at what GFI WebMonitor 2015 can do to help keep your network safe.

Protection

GFI WebMonitor 2015 protects your users from malware, phishing, and exploit code in compromised web pages with multiple antivirus engines scanning every page and download. It is ever vigilant in protecting users by tracking threats and phishing sites with up-to-date feeds on new threats. You can permit Internet access with confidence knowing that even if a trusted site has been compromised, your machines are safe from malware.

Compliance

Whether you need to enforce company policy by keeping users away from inappropriate websites, or ensure NPI is protected by preventing users from storing company data in consumer cloud services, GFI WebMonitor 2015 has you covered. GFI WebMonitor 2015’s policies and categorization lists can ensure that users are not accessing prohibited sites, while also ensuring that the services and applications that are appropriate for your business remain accessible.

Productivity

Not all social websites are bad, and not all recreational Internet access is either. GFI WebMonitor 2015 can monitor and report on Internet access, ensuring that your users have the freedom to surf for an appropriate amount of time, but not spend hours checking in and updating walls when they need to focus on their jobs. You can permit more access during lunch or after hours if that is what you need, or extend more access to those whose jobs require it, while limiting those who do not.

Bandwidth

While there is no such thing as enough bandwidth for some users, there should be for businesses. But when employees’ Internet access uses so much bandwidth that mission-critical applications like email and your website suffer, you need to fix that quickly, and wondering who might be downloading what is not the way to go. You need to know what is happening on your network, who is using what bandwidth, what your peaks and what your averages are and why. This is where GFI WebMonitor’s bandwidth reporting becomes very useful. You can see which users and what applications are using bandwidth, and what is being uploaded and downloaded to ensure that everyone is playing by the rules.

Flexibility

When it comes to policy, we definitely do not live in a one-size-fits-all world. GFI WebMonitor 2015 can enforce different policies for different users, groups, or job functions to help ensure that everyone can do their job, without having to open up things you would rather keep closed. Your marketing department probably needs to access Facebook to keep the company site going, but you don’t want to let users spend all day on their own site.  You may use Dropbox for Business but want to ensure no one is storing company files on Box. Whatever your company’s policies and specific needs, GFI WebMonitor 2015 has the flexibility to ensure that users can get their jobs done while enforcing policy and protecting the network.

You need the visibility into what your users are doing as well as the flexibility to permit what works for your business, while blocking what works against it. Management wants reports on everything that is going on, and be sure that the company’s reputation is not at stake or that they’ll feature on the latest news bulletin. Sure, you could block everyone’s access at the firewall, or use a simple proxy to create a list of allowed and blocked websites, but your users and your business need more flexibility than that. GFI WebMonitor 2015 provides that and more, so you can focus on your business and your customers, and not be distracted by what your users might be doing.