There is an option to display both the user ID and IP address in reports. To do so, go to the Advanced Settings - Report Settings page in your CyBlock or Cyfin product and open the Advanced Options link. On this screen, you will see an option to “Display Login Name and IP Address.” Simply click the checkbox so that it is enabled and click Submit. Now you will see both login names and IP addresses when running user reports.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup games begin today and will run until July 11.  Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a research firm that deals with lost workplace productivity, ranks the World Cup as one of the biggest time wasters in the workplace worldwide.  And it’s not just time that World Cup viewers will suck up in the workplace.  Bandwidth consumption will also increase with the availability of video streaming of the games.

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

There are many issues surrounding Web filtering in the workplace today.  Among them are whether to filter or not filter, and if you do filter, how strict should your policies be, what’s the best way to implement a Web filter, and what’s the best type of filter for your organization?  Wavecrest Computing attempts to answer these questions and more in our latest white paper, “Web Filtering in the Workplace: Finding the Best Solution.”  This paper discusses some of the issues surrounding Web filtering today, the different types of Web filters, and how Wavecrest approaches filtering with its RealTimePlus Filtering technology.

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

You may notice that the icon below occasionally shows up in the right-hand corner of the browser interface indicating that you have new product news.

This icon will stay in the upper right-hand corner of the browser interface until you click on it to read your product news.

We send product news to let you know general and critical information about your product.  Product news items provide you with information on new releases, category changes, updates and more so be sure to check your news when the icon appears.

When viewing a news item, you will notice at the top that we indicate whether or not the news is critical or non-critical.  Critical news is identified with a red bar, meaning that it is very important that you read the message and may require some action, while non-critical news is identified with a green bar.

Now is your last chance to take advantage of one of our sales specials on our CyBlock Internet filtering or Cyfin Internet monitoring software. These specials will end on December 31, 2009, so act fast!

Purchase a one-year license and get one extra month free! That’s a 13-month license for the price of 12!

Interested in a multi-year license?
No problem. For purchasing a 2-year license, you’ll get 2 extra months, or get 3 extra months with the purchase of a 3-year license.

New to Wavecrest?
Enjoy the following discounts when you purchase a NEW 2 or 3-year license:

• 20% off a new 2-year license
• 30% off a new 3-year license

Coming Up For Renewal?
In addition to getting the extra months, if you purchase a multi-year renewal license, you’ll also get to enjoy the following discounts:

• 15% off a 2-year license
• 20% off a 3-year license

To take advantage of these specials, simply state that you would like the “End of Year Sales Special” when you order!

For a quote or to place your order, contact sales.

Phone (Toll-free): 877-442-9346, ext. 3 (U.S. and Canada)
Phone: 321-953-5351, ext. 3
Email: sales@wavecrest.net

Social networking in the workplace is a major dilemma for today’s businesses. Does it help or hurt the organization? Some say it helps by enhancing collaboration among employees, partners and customers. Others say it hurts by draining productivity and bandwidth and creating legal liability and network security risks.

A survey conducted by Nucleus Research showed that 77 percent of workers who have a Facebook account use it during work hours. Of those who do use Facebook at work, 87% said they could not define a clear business reason for accessing the site and some reported using it as much as two hours per day.

So, in the face of all the countervailing views, just what is the best approach to the issue? Options include banning it altogether, using it with no restrictions, and employing it for business purposes only.

The short answer is, “It depends.”

That is, for any one organization, the answer really depends on management’s views on a number of issues. Among these are the nature and objectives of the business, organizational culture and managerial style, workforce morale factors, workforce demographics and skills, availability of technological solutions, and the need for external communications.

We are often asked about this issue.  So we developed this paper to share our knowledge and views. It explores various aspects of the issue, cites some relevant facts, and provides several recommendations. Our hope is that this information will help organizations that are struggling today with this contemporary and very important issue.

Read the full white paper: Social Networking or Social Not-working?

It’s that time of year again! The big Christmas shopping spree. As in previous years, the online version ‘officially’ starts on Cyber Monday – the day after the big T-Day weekend. And now this year we’ve got Green Monday (December 7) and Brown Monday (December 14). These are days on which, like Cyber Monday, online retailers put on a full court press to draw in ‘surfer-shoppers.’

And the whole circus runs through New Year’s Day.

The volume can be huge and problematical for employers. A survey conducted for ISACA, an association of 86,000 information technology professionals, states in part:

“Employees plan to spend nearly two full working days (14.4 hours) on average shopping online from a work computer this holiday season. One in 10 plans to spend more than 30 hours shopping online at work. Convenience (34%) and boredom (23%) are the biggest motivators.”

“… the second annual “Shopping on the Job: Online Holiday Shopping and Workplace Internet Safety” survey found that half of those surveyed plan to holiday shop online using a work computer.

“Dangers of shopping online include viruses, spam and phishing attacks that invade the workplace, resulting in financial losses due to reduced productivity and destruction or compromise of corporate data.”

In addition to generating network security and performance issues, online holiday shopping is a huge productivity waster for businesses. When workers are shopping, they’re not ‘minding the store.’ Accordingly, this is a good time for all types of organizations to take stock of their Web-use management practices and seek help if needed.

Wavecrest Computing is ready to provide that help.

Wavecrest’s Cyfin and CyBlock products and services help all types of organizations manage and control inappropriate and risky personal surfing of all kinds, including shopping. Cyfin and CyBlock products do this by monitoring and/or filtering employees’ Web use and reporting on the activity by content categories, e.g., shopping, sports, games, and others. Of particular note, with regard to holiday shopping, CyBlock products can be set up to block Web access by categories and by hour so employees can access shopping sites on their lunch break or after hours. This approach can help sustain morale while minimizing the risks associated with online shopping.

For 13 years, Wavecrest Computing has been providing Internet filtering and monitoring solutions to business, government, and educational organizations worldwide.  Wavecrest’s customer base includes well-known names such as the HP, Procter and Gamble, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, Bridgestone, Mazda and many others.

We’re Wavecrest Computing, a leading developer of Internet usage management products. Today is our thirteenth birthday. So we’re taking a moment to celebrate, look back, and reflect on some of our accomplishments over the years.

Since 1996, from our base in Melbourne, Florida, we have developed, marketed and supported a spectrum of innovative Internet monitoring and reporting solutions. Our products help all types of organizations manage their employees’ online activities and ensure compliance with acceptable use policies. Starting thirteen years ago with a single customer, our client base has grown to more than 3,000 organizations, many of them Fortune 500 companies and high profile government agencies.

We’re extremely proud of this. But it didn’t just ‘happen.’

The credit goes to an unusually talented and well-led team of development, sales and support people. They all work directly for Wavecrest; none are outsource or temporary employees. For years these dedicated men and women have made sure that we consistently deliver the products and services that our customers need to meet the many dynamic challenges associated with use of the Internet in the workplace.

And those challenges have certainly evolved over the years. Examples include the very real and seriously increasing risks of productivity losses, bandwidth drains, legal liability, and network security threats. And as the Internet grew and the challenges escalated, we have kept pace every step of the way.

Our first product— a basic software application called ProxyReporter—read and analyzed employers’ outbound Web logs. From that data, it then produced reports that helped management and IT monitor employees’ use of Web access.

Then, as the Internet became more sophisticated, we went on to develop a series of increasingly robust Web-use monitoring and filtering products designed to suit a variety of customers and network infrastructures. Our monitoring products now include Cyfin Reporter—a highly sophisticated and scalable logfile analyzer/reporter—and Cyfin Proxy, a standalone Web proxy/monitor/reporter. Our combination filtering/reporting products include CyBlock for ISA—a combination filter/reporter system for use with Microsoft ISA products—and CyBlock Proxy, a standalone proxy/filter/reporting solution.

Our latest innovation is CyBlock Appliance, a hardware based Internet-usage management device. Designed to monitor and help control use of all Internet protocols, CyBlock Appliance is a standalone proxy, monitor, filter and reporter.

Of particular interest, in recent years, we have upgraded all of these products to deal with emerging issues associated with a variety of Web 2.0 advances such as social networking. At the same time we have been busy incorporating new features such as protocol filtering and trend reporting.

Through the years our products have been well received and proven to be highly reliable and cost-effective, and we back them all with a 90-day money-back guarantee.

As proud as we are of our products, we take equal pride in our support services. When customers call, they talk to a real person—here in America—and they get personalized attention. Our support personnel, all of whom have been with us for years, know that customer satisfaction is key to the company’s (and their own) success. And as a result of their responsiveness and professionalism, they have received literally hundreds of kudos and compliments over the years.

So, in sum, we have much to celebrate and be proud of.

Happy Birthday, Wavecrest!

There are two options for managing your Groups and IDs in Cyfin or CyBlock.  You can manage them either “Inside the Product” or “Outside the Product.”

By choosing to manage your Groups and IDs “Inside the Product,”  it means exactly that.  You can manually add, delete and move Groups and IDs in the product.  If you import your Groups and IDs from Active Directory or a text file, each time your Groups and IDs are imported either manually or scheduled, only NEW Groups and IDs will import.  The new Groups and IDs that are imported will be based on your configuration setup in the Active Directory Setup wizard.  Your existing Groups and IDs will not be modified, which means if a user left or moved departments, he/she will have to be deleted or moved in the product.  If you want to have users in the VIP group, you must use the “Inside the Product” option.

If you select to manage your Groups and IDs “Outside the Product,” then you will be only managing and making changes to your Groups and IDs at the directory source.  Each time Groups and IDs are imported, whether manually or scheduled from Active Directory or a text file, all Groups and IDs will be updated to identically match that configuration. Typically this option is not used because the directory source is grouped according to your network setup and not according to how you will want to apply Web-use policies.