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What would you like to monitor?

For when WebSpyrians have something to say.

Posts Tagged ‘Acceptable Internet Usage Policies’

How should Employees use Social Media?

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

WebProNews is an online news site covering the latest developments in search engines, SEO, social media marketing and online advertising and I have been subscribing to them for many odd years. Recently they have been posting interviews, surveys and comments in relation to the use of social media.

New research from Robert Half Technology indicates that over half of chief information officers (CIOs) do not allow employees to visit social networking sites for any reason while they’re at work. This information comes from a survey of 1,400 CIOs from companies around the US with 100 or more employees.
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How to Improve Public Proxy Management and Control

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Using public proxies generally involves browsing to a public proxy website to request access to another site, usually blocked or prohibited by organizational policy. When accessing sites in this fashion, firewalls, filtering devices and monitoring solutions are only aware that an employee, or student, has accessed the public proxy site, and not the actual end target site.
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Internet Monitoring Best Practices – 10 Valuable Tips

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

The benefits of allowing employees monitored Internet access, instead of extensive blocking and filtering, have been explored in previous blogs. In essence, an effective monitoring solution will assist in maximizing employee productivity, identifying download issues, improving network management and minimizing litigation risks.

Something of great importance is taking the users of the network you intend to monitor into consideration. Overly intrusive practices can easily create the negative perception that Big Brother is watching and make employees feel frustrated and uncomfortable. Effective Internet monitoring requires a two-pronged approach; intuitive monitoring software AND workforce education / consideration.

This time around I would like to expand on the best ways of monitoring your organizational Internet usage whilst maintaining a harmonious working environment between employers and employees.
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Business benefits from monitoring and reporting on Internet, email and network log files

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

In previous blogs I have covered why internet access is so important in the workplace, why blocking and filtering should be minimized, and why monitoring is preferred. Today I thought I’d focus on the specific benefits of monitoring and reporting on log files.

To some it might be obvious, but plenty of search queries used by visitors coming to our site contains phrases such as; “Why monitor internet usage important” and “Why analyze log files”.

Majority of benefits directly relate to the network device being monitored so I will structured the business benefits based on this. (more…)


Unlocking the Value of your Log Data. 10 tips to help you get started

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

This is a popular WebSpy article that we decided to re-post. Click here to download pdf version.

What can log data do for you?

Organisations today are deploying a variety of security solutions to counter the ever increasing threat to their email and Internet investments. Often, the emergence of new threats spawns solutions by different companies with a niche or a specialty for that specific threat – whether it is a guard against viruses, spam, intrusion detection, Spyware, data leakage or any of the other segments within the security landscape.

This heterogeneous security environment means that there has been a proliferation of log data generated by the various systems or devices. As the number of different log formats increases coupled with the sheer volume of log data, the more difficult it becomes for organisations to turn this data into meaningful business information. (more…)


The Cost of Blocking Employee Internet Usage

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

Figures from Australia’s major communications company, Telstra, shows there has been a three-fold increase in Australian employers blocking social network sites in the space of 10 months. During the same period the total number of URLs normally allowed at work has decreased by 58%.

Do these figures mean that employers are cutting back workplace Internet access? Is organizational URL blocking a desperate attempt to decrease Internet costs in our sluggish economic environment? Is it really the best way to decrease costs? What are the hidden costs? To block or not to block, that is the question…
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