Web Filtering: Are You Protected?

There are two sides to every coin and when there’s good you can guarantee there is bad. The internet is a prime example. In this blog, we will discuss different pros and cons to web filtering and why it’s important to you.

The internet has provided businesses everywhere with resources to learn, grow, and collaborate on just about every topic imaginable. Accessing that information has become all too easy. For every good, valuable piece of information the internet provides, it also delivers users bad content too. Typically, bad content is considered anything that a company would not approve of their users accessing. Social media and shopping sites lead to reduced employee productivity. But, worse yet, access to pornography, violence and social media bullying are entirely unwelcome at a company and may have their own legal implications.

Realizing the volume of good and bad websites and how easily accessible they are, companies began turning to Firewalls to determine which sites they wanted their employees to have access to and which they wanted blocked. Firewalls are programs designed to block access to unauthorized sites. It is important to note that when Firewalls were created, the internet was not nearly as large as it is today making it a viable option at the time. However, company-wide blocking quickly became problematic.

Different departments within the same company require access to different sites to fulfill their daily functions. So what is reasonable access for one division may be far too restrictive for another. For example, it may seem reasonable that a business blocks shopping sites. But when the Marketing department can’t access shopping sites to purchase tradeshow giveaways, it poses a problem. As a result, the company has to unblock the shopping sites and risks employees outside of Marketing accessing them during work hours and lowering productivity.

As the issue began to grow with more and more people turning to the internet for basic needs, the concept of web filtering was developed. Web filtering is a tool or procedure used to monitor, track or prohibit company’s internal users Internet usage. There are many levels of web filtering that a company can select based upon their needs – black and white list filters, keyword and content scanning, URL web filtering, and client-side and server-side filtering to name a few. Web filtering differs from Firewalls because it provides other options of user monitoring than the extremes of firewall’s “good” or “bad” site labeling and blocking.

The specialized IT consultants at Revolution Group have years of experience finding companies the perfect web filtering options to fit their business needs. Taking the time to learn your business from top to bottom gives our specialists the insight needed to help you protect your company from harmful websites while giving you the freedom to conduct your day-to-day business activities. Call us today to learn more, 614-212-1111