How much Facebook time do you allow in your organization?
Are your employees watching ESPN on their company owned smartphones and tablets during business hours?
There is certainly a time and place for online activities, and it isn’t usually during business hours.
Can you as an employer benefit from limiting access to certain websites during work hours? Yes you can with a web filtering tool and/or proxy server. These tools can block potentially dangerous or problematic websites and protect your network. Here are a few of the most common benefits of using web filtering:
1. Reduce productivity loss by limiting access to sites that are unsafe, unneeded or otherwise challenging.
Work hours can be wasted on websites not required for work projects. These could include social media, entertainment, gaming, and pornography. They can also include websites for personal use such as banking, e-mail, and more that are being accessed during work hours.
2. Protection from cyberattacks.
Web filtering can screen out phishing attempts as well as other cyberattacks. Viruses, malware and more can be accessed inadvertently by employees. These cyberattacks can automatically download information without the user even knowing, running in the background and later causing disastrous results that cost the company time and money to fix.
3. Harassment concerns are reduced.
Some companies have gotten into hot water when an employee opened a pornographic website. Others have been sued for allowing a hostile work environment when an inappropriate joke was shared. Web filtering can be set to limit certain words, phrases and topics on websites from being accessed.
Certainly, choosing a web filtering solution should limit what’s required without being overly restrictive to hurt productivity. Some employees feel if everything is blocked, it creates a culture of mistrust. The balance needs to be found between work and break time activities to encourage morale.
The internet is a very useful tool for many small businesses and it isn’t likely valuable to disallow all usage. Being able to access data online, including information, forms and more, makes the internet an important resource that can actually help productivity. Web filtering can allow the right type of productivity while also limiting the company from being vulnerable to lawsuits, attacks and more.
We can help you find a web filtering solution that is right for your business. Let’s take the first step towards better cyber security in your IT environment.
EstesCloud // Explore our Managed Services Solution:
CompleteCare: Maintaining your own IT infrastructure is expensive and frustrating. EstesCloud CompleteCare combines the benefits of our ServerCare and ClientCare programs into one comprehensive program that protects your entire IT infrastructure at a predictable fixed cost. Let the EstesCloud team become your Trusted IT Advisor, so you can get back to growing your business.
Let’s start the conversation!
ServerCare: A proactive approach to IT that includes regular scheduled maintenance and monitoring is essential to maintaining a healthy network and a productive staff.
EstesCloud ServerCare will give you peace of mind knowing that our team is continually watching and caring for your servers.
Discover the Benefits of ServerCare.
ClientCare: Proactive support for your desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. We provide all of the monitoring, patching, and security tools for your systems, plus full access to our help desk services 24/7/365.
EstesCloud ClientCare will ensure your valuable data is secure whenever and wherever it is needed.
Take control of your systems today.
ComplianceCare: Are you a medical provider under HIPAA or HITECH regulatory compliance? Are government auditors keeping you up at night? Our HIPAA IT Management Service will ensure you are HIPAA compliant.
For the health of your IT Enterprise.
