Stop Staff Wasting Time on the Internet
March 4, 2009
Most staff are responsible and prudent with their Internet use and we always recommend a suitable AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) to be in place so that staff or any users of your systems know what they are and aren’t permitted to use the computers for. This AUP can be re-inforced by DrayTek routers which can block specific content (either at certain times only or all times) and also block potentially harmful file/code types from being installed by rogue web sites. There are some staff who will make severe abuse of the Internet facilities – spending literally hours on personal matters or social networking sites.
Top 5 Personal Internet Uses for Employees
- Personal Email: Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc.
- Intant Messaging: MSN, AOL, Yahoo etc.
- Social Networking: Facebook, MySpace etc.
- Buying: Using Amazon, Ebay etc.
- Multimedia : YouTube, iPlayer etc.
All of the above are can be immensely time consuming and addictive. It’s easy to let a quick visit become a prolonged stay.
Inappropriate Use
As well as wasteful use, employees can also make inappropriate use of the Internet. Most obviously, this would include visiting web sites containing objectional or sensitive material, for example pornography or adult related sites. Gambling sites may also be inappropriate for an office environment. If you are operating in a school or similar, blocking specific categories of sites is even more important.
Security Risks
Your IT hardware operates most efficiently if it’s not interfered with. A user who downloads and installs software from the Internet uses storage space and may affect the stability of your system. O/S components (DLLs) may be replaced, system services added and the risk of virus, trojans and spyware is increased. Web applications (including ActiveX components, Java etc.) are automatically downloaded by web browsers – many users may not realise the implications of that, but they’re also not able to tell what the source or motivation of those components really is. A harmless ‘addon’ might not be so harmless.
Another security risk is that of online email or instant messaging being used to disclose company confidential information or files – that could be seriously damaging. The use of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing technology could also expose your company to litigation if it is used for unlawful activities. In the case of more serious and deliberate data theft (indistrial espionage), remote access or tunnelling to your network could also be set up by a rogue employee.
The DrayTek Solution
DrayTek Router/Firewalls can help control your users’ Internet usage and block sites and content which you don’t want on your network. You can set schedules to allow surfing certain sites at certain times (for example at lunchtime) or block them permanently. You can block specific users or all users. The DrayTek range includes content filtering methods to block the following:
- Web Sites by Category (e.g. Sex, Gambling, Shopping, Proxies etc.)
- Web Sites by specific name (e.g. Ebay, Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo, Gmail etc.)
- Web Executables: Java, ActiveX etc.
- Multimedia File Download: MPG, AVI, WAV etc.
- Browser Cookies
- Instant Messaging: MSN, AIM, Yahoo, GoogleTalk etc.
- Multimedia (Streaming, YouTube etc.)
- Voice-over-IP (SIP, Skype)
- Peer-to-Peer Applications (BitTorrent, eDonkey, Gnuttela etc.)
- Tunnelling (Socks, HTTP Tunnel, Ping Tunnel, Tiny VPN etc.)
- Remote Control (Radmin, PCAnywhere, RDP, VNC etc.)
- Download Extension Type (e.g. .EXE, .BAT
- Application by specific IP Port No./Range
- IP Filtering (Blocking IP addresses or ranges)
In summary, with a DrayTek router, you can lock down your company’s web access to increase security and productivity substantially. You can also exclude PCs from the restrictions, for example for management or for specific PCs which are allowed to be used for recreation, and if used with the router’s ‘VLAN’ feature, those computers can be isolated from the main network for added security. Time schedules can also be added to turn the restrictions off.Surrey IT Solutions are Draytek resellers and also highly proficient in their setup and configuration.
