Web Filtering

Web filtering is the prevention of access to offensive or malicious sites.

Did you know 25% of the total search engine requests are porn related? And that 70% of the access to porn related sites is during work hours? Or how about that 30 - 40% of employee's web activity is not work associated? These are the facts that many employers are failing to do anything about.

Access to malicious sites leaves your companies network open to security threats that may include the download of harmful software and the exploit of vulnerabilities. As a company you have the responsibility of making sure your network doesn't have any security threats by stopping admission to certain sites.

Not only does restricting the entry to certain sites stop your network from becoming vulnerable to security threats it also means that your employees are productive during working hours instead of wasting time browsing sites that they shouldn't be on. Web filtering allows you to take control, you decide what the computers in your network can access and what they can't, dependent on what your company is about and what its needs are, making it a very flexible piece of software.

Web filtering software is not only for use in a company, office environment but is also available for use on home computers in the cases of parents who want to control the content that their children can gain access to on the computer. This also applies to schools who want to stop children gaining access to sites that could not only damage the computer network but that could also put the children in danger of, for example, pedophiles.

So would it bother you if your company monitored or filtered your web access? To some the idea of Web Filtering is like taking away pens to prevent doodling. Web Filtering in the eyes of employers is a way of monitoring their employees without directly saying that they are doing so. Employers are given complete peace of mind benefits from using Web Filtering software on computer networks. The networks are protected from not only the basic web threats but also from inappropriate or illegal web content and reduces the risk of illegal content entering.

As a company money is an obvious issue and another reason why many companies decide to use a Web Filtering service. This is because by restricting the amount of sites employees have access to you are reducing the bandwidth that is being used, saving you money

The amount of time spent browsing the internet continues to rise, which makes it harder to monitor and regulate all the sites. Most web filtering checks the sites you are trying to gain access to against a list of sites that are restricted, however you may struggle with this as the volume of new sites continues to grow.

Web filtering in the workplace puts you in control of what your employees can gain access to; you are controlling their use of the internet, which makes them less likely to try and get onto non work related sites, meaning they will be more productive.