Do You Gamble On Your Web Security? | Enterprise Features

by SarahSpiteri on 26/09/12 at 4:35 pm

Could you imagine a world without the Internet? It might be a big leap, but use your imagination to erase it from history for a moment. How would that change the way you do business? Would your organization even be around if the Internet didn?t exist?

Despite the considerable changes that the Internet has brought to business, many companies still insist on gambling with their Web security. There are many perils that lurk out there in the form of hackers, malware and viruses and these can have a hugely detrimental effect on your business. In today?s business world, Web security has become just as important as the Web itself.

So how can you enjoy the benefits the Internet brings, without falling prey to the pitfalls?

Get Proactive Web Security

Every single time an employee downloads a file to your network they put your system at risk. The file might be infected by malware of a virus, which may then require system downtime in order to clean out the infection. That is a very costly exercise.

Good Web security software can control what types of files your users may download, and then scans them with multiple antivirus engines. This ensures you always have excellent protection against possible infection.

Block Phishing Attacks

Sometimes your users are tricked into infecting your network, or lured into disclosing confidential information, such as passwords or banking data. Social engineering has become a major attack vector for those that want to get their hands on your data; and this method is often effective because it camouflages itself under a layer of legitimacy.

The best defense against this is to use a Web security solution that can monitor HTTPS traffic to catch malware and websites that are masquerading as trusted sources. In addition, a good solution should also provide you with access to a database of known malicious sites, automatically blocking access to them.??

Keep Productivity Up

Employee Internet access privileges are just that: a privilege. However, some forget this and waste time on personal browsing and chat. While you may want to allow some personal browsing, bear in mind that some websites, such as streaming media sites like YouTube, can be bandwidth hogs. If employees are continually accessing sites like these, the performance of your network can be severely degraded and productivity will suffer across your organization.

By applying Web security you can effectively monitor bandwidth usage and set user thresholds to enforce a fair use policy. Specific sites, or even categories of websites, can be blocked. A good Web security solution also provides granular Internet access control, allowing you to control Web privileges by employee.

In addition, the best Web security solutions can also rate websites based on their reputation, predicting the security risk involved in accessing such a site. If the site exceeds a threshold, access is denied. This database should be continually updated by the software provider to take into account websites that may have been temporarily infected, so they do not remain permanently blocked.

You may find it hard to imagine operating without the Internet, but given the potential dangers that exist and the possible losses your company may incur, you should also find it impossible to imagine operating without effective Web security. Anything less than that is just gambling.

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About The Author: This guest post was written by Christina Goggi on behalf of GFI Software Ltd. Learn more on what your web security solution should include. All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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1. The Open Architecture Of Web 2.0 Presents New Web Security Threats For Businesses
2. Is Your Web Site a Security Risk?
3. The Difference Between VPN and Web Proxies
4. How The New Social Web Is Pushing The Growth And Adoption Of Open Identities
5. Why Low-Traffic Web Sites Need Dependable Web Hosting

Source: http://enterprisefeatures.com/2012/09/do-you-gamble-on-your-web-security/

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