Web Filtering

The Challenge

Inappropriate Web use in the workplace may lead to lower productivity, unacceptable use of company resources, pressure on network resource availability, and legal liability. The challenge for organizations lies in balancing employees’ personal surfing needs while increasing overall levels of productivity, as well as maintaining acceptable bandwidth levels throughout the network.

Manage Employee Internet Usage

The MegaPath Web Filtering service offers enterprises of all sizes an easy way to enforce Internet usage policies. And, we leverage a data base of Websites that is continually updated to ensure your policies include the latest threat protections. This cost-effective solution controls access to the Web, increasing productivity, security and network performance.

The Web Filtering service is composed of:

• Content Filtering: Blocks access to Internet sites by category content
• White List / Black List Filtering: Allows or denies access to selected Web sites.

Separately or in tandem, these services help organizations achieve a balance between managing employee Internet access and enforcing Internet use policies. The result is improved employee productivity, decreased risk of legal liability from employee Internet activity, and optimal use of IT resources.

Features and Benefits

MegaPath Web Filtering service regulates and provides valuable insight into all web activities allowing customers to meet new Government Regulations, Educational Compliance, HR Policies and Corporate Internet Usage Policies. This service maintains the largest URL database in the industry that is continually updated with over 100 million rated websites and 76 categorized ratings. As part of the database, the service can block access to security risk web sites, common sources of spyware, malware, and peer-to-peer applications.

Other features:

• Allows/disallows based on the content or type of resource using Content Filters
• Blocks access to Internet sites by category content
  (Adult, Gambling, Racial/Hate, etc.)
• Blocks common sources of spyware and malware
• Blocks Peer-to-Peer applications (i.e. BitTorrent)
• Provides automatic end-user notification of policy violation
• Includes comprehensive executive and granular reports on web activity

Protection Benefits

Web Filtering helps your company in many ways. It protects against loss of productivity by accurately managing employee access to websites, minimizing lost time on the Internet, and lowering operating costs. It also helps you manage employee Internet access and enforce usage policies to mitigate your legal liability up front if an employee engages in improper behavior.

In addition, it helps protect against inappropriate content, which can lead to many forms of harassment and workplace complications. And, it helps your organization enforce Internet usage policies based on bandwidth needs to prevent business losses and other issues that result from limited access to mission-critical applications.

How It Works

At the heart of the MegaPath Content Filtering service are rating servers distributed world-wide to provide reliable, uninterruptible service. The rating databases are updated continuously to provide real-time protection against suspect, unauthorized, and dangerous web sites as they are discovered. A customer can check URLs online and submit URLs for review through our Resource Center.

White List/Black List Filtering Service

White List/Black List refers to a URL filtering service that allows a customer to control Internet access. A White List allows access to pre-approved websites. All sites not specifically allowed are blocked. A Black List denies access to a predefined list of external web sites and allows full Internet access except for the listed sites.

URL Database Categories

MegaPath URL Database Categories are based on the web content viewing suitability of your enterprise, government and education customers. They also take into account customer requirements for Internet access management. The categories are defined to be easily manageable and patterned to industry standards.

Reports

Web filtering reports show which websites and content categories were blocked and the top IP addresses of PCs that tried to access blocked content. This is valuable information for tracking what employees are trying to access on the Internet.

Example of Top Blocked Websites Graph

Example of Top Blocked Categories Graph