1. Keep your categorization list current via daily updates.
Wavecrest site analysts work continuously to update and expand the categorization list. In fact, the Wavecrest URL list is 100% human reviewed. These updates are available for download daily. It’s a simple process that can be done manually or on an automatic/scheduled basis. You can download the URL list or schedule the download to occur daily on the Administration - URL List screen.

2. Establish custom categories.
Augment Wavecrest’s standard 74 categories with custom categories. You can add up to 25 custom categories. You can activate and use as many or as few of these as you want, and you can easily give them specific names of your own choosing. Names are limited to 50 characters. These settings are found on the Advanced Settings — Category Setup — Name Custom screen. Once a custom category has been established, you can augment the Wavecrest URL List with URLs of your own choosing and place them in the custom category for subsequent monitoring or filtering. Custom categories also provide white list (allow-only) capability for CyBlock users.

3. Add URLs.
You can add URLs to both the Wavecrest standard and custom categories. The applicable settings are found on the Advanced Settings — Category Setup — Edit URLs screen. You can also delete URLs here.

4. Change a URL’s category.
If you wish, you can change the category to which Wavecrest has assigned a particular URL. You can do this by simply adding the URL to the category of your choice. Your categorization will take permanent precedence over the Wavecrest URL list.

5. Participate in our OtherWise program.
To opt in our OtherWise program, you simply need to periodically run a Top Non-categorized Sites report and email a copy to sites@wavecrest.net. Our list technicians will research, identify and categorize the most popular unidentified sites, many of which will be of local or special interest to your organization. Then, after you download the next daily control list update, subsequent visits to those sites by your users will no longer be listed as “Other.” They’ll be properly identified and categorized. NOTE: We hold all customer information sent to us in strict confidence.

Internet access is one of those resources that can easily be abused, costing an organization time and money. Internet filtering and/or monitoring with one of Wavecrest’s Cyfin or CyBlock products can help preclude or drive down costs in at least four areas: productivity, bandwidth, legal liability and security.

1. Productivity

• The average worker admits to frittering away 2.09 hours per 8-hour workday, not including lunch and scheduled break-time (America Online and Salary.com survey, 2006).
• The average employee costs a company $29.71 per hour (including salary, overhead costs, benefits, payroll taxes, etc.) —- United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics — March 2010.
• Lost productivity costs the company $59.42 per day per employee (2 hrs x $29.71).
• Average employee works 240 days per year.
• Yearly loss per employee is $14,260.80  (240 x $59.42)
• Loss per 1000 employees is $14,260,800 per year.
• Average cost for a Wavecrest Internet filtering or monitoring product with a 1000-employee license is $3,500 per year ($3.50 per user).

Conclusion:  Cost of a Wavecrest license is less than three tenths of one percent of the cost of lost productivity. A well-communicated Web-use policy, coupled with an effective monitoring product, greatly increases productivity in the workplace.

2.  Bandwidth

Reliable studies indicate that as much as 70% of a company’s bandwidth is being consumed by non-productive pursuits. Activities such as online video, audio streaming, downloading movies or MP3’s are especially damaging.  It is quite clear that eliminating or significantly reducing bandwidth abuse can improve network performance and preclude or decelerate the need for organizations to support increased bandwidth use.

3.  Legal Liability

Web-related legal costs typically result from employees visiting pornography sites.  Many studies show this to be a serious problem. In fact, according to research by Nielsen Online in October 2008, one quarter of employees who use the Internet visit porn sites during the workday.  Hits to porn sites are higher during office hours than at any other time of day, according to M.J. McMahon, publisher of AVN Online magazine, which tracks the adult video industry.

This type of activity puts the employer at serious risk of being sued by other workers who are offended or upset by being exposed to pornographic images. Such suits usually take the form of sexual harassment or hostile workplace litigation and can be very costly in terms of damage to reputation as well as legal costs.

4.  Security

Studies show that approximately twenty percent of personal use of the Internet by employees involves activities that pose potential threats to employer network security. Examples include file sharing, the use of malicious code, spyware and more. Like bandwidth abuse, the associated costs are difficult to quantify, but such activities can easily result in network disruptions or slowdowns and/or loss or compromise of proprietary data; these all come with a cost.

While the World Cup ranks number 4 in the US as a top time waster behind March Madness, the Super Bowl and Fantasy Football, it will still cost American companies about $121.7 million in lost productivity.  The British economy, however, is looking to lose about $7.36 billion in productivity, according to the British law firm Brabners Chaffe Street.

Wavecrest’s Cyfin and CyBlock products and services help all types of organizations manage and control employee Web activity. Cyfin and CyBlock products do this by monitoring and/or filtering employees’ Web use and reporting on the activity by content categories, e.g., sports, social networking, games, and others. Of particular note, with regard to the World Cup, CyBlock products can be set up to block Web access by categories and by hour so employees can access sports sites on their lunch break or after hours. This approach can help sustain morale while minimizing lost productivity and bandwidth associated with the World Cup.

Sources:
http://blogs.reuters.com/shop-talk/2010/06/08/world-cup-is-no-march-madness-in-sapping-productivity/
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/blog/2010/06/world_cup_promises_some_kick_to_productivity_apps_aim_to_help.html
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/060608/8worldcup.htm

As the table shows, many online activities that are probably not work related utilize a lot of bandwidth.  The last thing any organization needs is network latency or slowdowns due to non-work related online activity.

To mitigate this problem, CyBlock and Cyfin provide IT with the information needed to determine 1) if the bandwidth consumption is work related and 2) if any measures need to be taken to reduce the amount of consumption.  Both products provide quantified data (via Web-use reports) that can help IT personnel keep track of network (bandwidth) utilization by users as well as by type of usage (appropriate or not so appropriate).

The Dashboard is the easiest way to get a quick view of bandwidth usage.  You can quickly find the top bandwidth consumers by users, groups, categories or sites.  You can also check when spikes in bandwidth activity occur.

The reports below can also be used to track bandwidth usage by users and identify potentially troublesome sites.

• Site Analysis Bandwidth Report - Focusing on kilobytes by classification, category, and users, this report gives a good overview of whether the majority of bandwidth consumption was acceptable and which categories and users used the most bandwidth.
• Top Bandwidth Sites Report - This report shows the top bandwidth consuming sites and their categories for the specified time period.
• Network Information Report - Find out your busiest time of day for Internet use with this report.  It shows visits and kilobytes read by hour.
• Top Users Report - This report displays the top hits, visits, and kilobytes by user.

These reports can help you anticipate overload possibilities and the need (or lack of need) to purchase additional capacity.  If abuse can be detected and brought under control, the cost of additional capacity may be avoided.

By monitoring and using the reports listed above, you can:

1. Obtain an accurate, content-categorized picture of network usage patterns
2. Identify bandwidth abusers for management attention
3. Prevent bandwidth wastage through intelligent filtering
4. Improve IT system performance and reduce bandwidth costs.

1. Go to Reports - Schedule and click on the Create link.
2. Select the Top Non-Categorized Sites report.
3. For Report Delivery, select to email the report to other recipient, and type in sites@wavecrest.net in the text field.
4. For the Timeframe, we recommend running the report weekly or monthly.
5. Click Submit to save your changes, and the report will now be emailed automatically to our site analysts at Wavecrest on a weekly or monthly basis (depending on the frequency you selected).

From now on, no further action is needed on your part. A site analyst will review the report to categorize any non-categorized sites and if necessary, alert you if there is any suspicious activity.

Visit our Web site or contact us to learn more about our OtherWise program.

1. To check the date and time zone set in CyBlock Appliance, go to the screen http://yourappliance/help/systeminformation/shell/index.html. Use your server name or IP in place of “yourappliance.”
2. Run the following command:
   date
3. Hit Enter.
4. You should now see the current set date and time for the Appliance.
5. If it is not the correct date and time, then run the following command:
   date -s “20May 2010 16:00:00″ (Type in the date and time that is current for your time zone.)
6. Hit Enter, and this will set the appliance to the correct date and time.
7. To double check that the appliance is now set to the correct date and time, run the date command again.

White Paper: Web Filtering in the Workplace: Finding the Best Solution

In your CyBlock or Cyfin product, Facebook is located in the Social Networking category, and you will find Google in the Search Engines category.  If you ever want to monitor these sites more closely, or any other sites for that matter, you can always place them in a custom category.

For more information on social networking in the workplace, read our white paper, “Social Networking or Social Not-Working?”

CyBlock Proxy, Cyfin Proxy and CyBlock Appliance Enhancements

• Proxy Server Authentication. New authentication options are now available on the Setup - Proxy screen.  Options include Strict, Moderate, and Disable (if disabled, IP addresses will be used).  The default setting is Moderate.  These options affect how bypass authentication is handled on the new Authentication Manager.
• Authentication Manager. Complementing the new proxy server authentication options is the Authentication Manager. This screen allows the administrator to manage improperly authenticating URL/domains, web applications and user-agents. The Authentication Manager is located at Advanced Settings - Proxy Settings - Authentication Manager.
• PAC File Configuration. This new screen allows for easy PAC file configuration that you can push out to all browsers. It is located at Advanced Settings - Proxy Settings - PAC File Configuration.
• Product News. With this release, we have added the ability for administrators to get product news alerts via email.  This setting is found on the Administration - Product News - Setup page.  NOTE: The default setting is “Do not email.”

CyBlock ISA Enhancements & Updates

• Forefront TMG Support. Support is now available for Microsoft Forefront TMG for both filtering and reporting.
• Product News. With this release, we have added the ability for administrators to get product news alerts via email.  This setting is found on the Administration - Product News - Setup page.  NOTE: The default setting is “Do not email.”
• ISA Server 2000 No Longer Supported. With this latest upgrade, there is no longer support for ISA Server 2000.

Cyfin Reporter Enhancements

• New Logfile Support for the following:
  • Microsoft Forefront TMG Support
  • Watchguard Firebox 11 with Syslog
  • Astaro Security
• Product News. With this release, we have added the ability for administrators to get product news alerts via email.  This setting is found on the Administration - Product News - Setup page.  NOTE: The default setting is “Do not email.”

Use the following links to access the full release notes for your Wavecrest product.

• CyBlock Proxy
• CyBlock Appliance
• CyBlock ISA
• Cyfin Reporter
• Cyfin Proxy

If you have any questions about any of the new features or upgrading, please contact Support.

Email: support@wavecrest.net
Phone (Toll-free): 877-442-9346, ext. 4 (U.S. and Canada)
Phone (Direct): 321-953-535, ext. 4