Most companies would come to a standstill if employees couldn’t get online. The internet is needed to access online cloud applications, do work-related research, connect cloud storage, and much more.
But it also can be hosted on multiple non-productive and dangerous sites, such as online shopping, personal social media, and malicious phishing websites.
Trying to balance “good” and “bad” internet activity can be an ongoing challenge. Without the right tools, companies can suffer ransomware or malware infections because an employee accidentally visited a link in a phishing email. Employees can also inadvertently cause bandwidth issues by streaming videos when they should be working.
68% of surveyed employees say they spend 1 to 2 hours per week on non-work-related internet surfing, and 21% (nearly a quarter!) say they spend up to 5 hours each week wasting time online while at work.
How can you gain back control of the internet at your business without restricting legitimate use? Web filtering can help.
Using Web Filtering for Security & Productivity
Web filtering is an application that acts as an internet sentry. It can monitor all internet activity on a network, block dangerous sites, and give companies a way to better control their internet traffic.
There are several advantages to using it that can positively impact a company’s bottom line.
Protection from Phishing Attacks
Phishing is the main delivery method from malware, spyware, viruses, and many other types of online threats.
People used to worry most about opening a dangerous file attachment that was in a phishing email, but the real threat nowadays is a link to a malicious website. 88% of phishing uses malicious URLs rather than a file attachment.
Malicious sites can do instant injections of malware onto a device as soon as the page is loaded into the user’s browser. They also often spoof the look of a legitimate site, like a Microsoft 365 login page, so they can trick a user into giving up their login credentials.
Web filtering reviews all URLs before directing the user’s browser. If it detects a malicious site or known phishing scam, it will redirect the user to a warning page, effectively blocking the site.
Bandwidth Management
Employees may be playing games on their phone while at lunch or downloading a large video file in the background while doing their work, completely oblivious to the bandwidth they’re using.
Certain websites can be responsible for high bandwidth use that impedes the smooth connection of your work-related activities. For example, a large download can cause a Zoom video call to freeze because it’s taking bandwidth away.
Web filtering allows you to restrict the bandwidth that can be used by certain sites (e.g., YouTube) or block sites entirely that are non-work-related and being shown as bandwidth hogs on your network.
Improve Employee Productivity
81% of millennials and 68% of all employees use work time to shop online. Another common online activity that steals away productivity time is being on social media while at work.
Web filtering allows companies to block access to distracting websites that are not work related, including sites like Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, etc.
By being able to control which sites can and cannot be reached while on your network, you can keep employee non-work internet use while on the clock to a minimum and improve overall productivity.
Block Inappropriate Content
Most people have experienced doing an innocent web search and ending up with inappropriate search results (violent images, pornography, etc.).
Web filtering allows you to put controls in place that restrict what’s considered adult or inappropriate content. This improves user experience and mitigates any embarrassing searches that may happen (especially if it’s during a screen sharing session).
Protecting Your Company from Compliance or Legal Issues
The transparency that web filtering gives you into your company’s internet use can help you identify and stop any activities that could cause you legal issues or result in a data privacy compliance violation.
Should an employee be engaging in any illegal online activities while at work, you’ll be able to see this when reviewing the website usage statistics from the web filtering application.
Employees can also easily inadvertently leak sensitive information online that can result in privacy violations. With the controls that web filtering allows, you can restrict certain activities to prevent this from happening.
Improve Overall Internet Reliability
When looking at your traffic reports from web filtering, you might see that a lot of bandwidth is being used during a certain time of day, the same time when employees complain about “spotty internet.”
You may see that a large server backup is happening during that time each day, something that can easily be switched to later in the evening, once everyone has gone home. This frees up resources and improves internet reliability.
Get Help Setting Up Web Filtering Today!
Pro Tech Guy can help your Framingham business put web filtering in place and optimize your settings for max security and productivity.
Contact us today to learn more. Call 508-364-8189 or reach us online.