Are you blind to employee web abuse?

Web abuse in the workplace is an all too common issue today*. The possible damage to reputation coupled with the high costs associated with time spent by employees on unauthorised Internet use has become a serious concern for businesses.

WebController is Opal’s Internet-level web security solution designed to give immediate protection from all Internet based threats and prevent unauthorised usage. With the convergence of web and email threats, it is now more important than ever to have a unified strategy on threat prevention. When combined with MailController, Opal’s email security solution, WebController ensures complete Internet and email control.

*The Department of Industry’s 2006 Information Security Breaches survey reports that 17% of UK businesses suffered staff misue of web access. 41% of this misuse involved staff accessing inappropriate websites, including accessing illegal material.

Technology overview

Managing the secure and efficient usage of the web is vital to ensure that it is an effective business and communications tool. WebController provides everything a business requires to define and enforce all aspects of web security and usage policies. The combination of world-class heuristics technology, complemented by a network of threat experts means that web threats are analysed and defenses updated immediately. Huntsman intelligent threat prevention technology provides comprehensive and constantly updated protection from web threats, including blended attacks.

WebController is a fully integrated solution which comprises of two modules:

Access Manager. The ability to understand, define and enforce acceptable employee Internet usage is critical to the web being a valuable business tool, without representing a threat to staff productivity, network resource availability or increased legal liability.
Access Manager enables a business to define detailed and flexible web access policies based on website categories. This level of control ensures that recreational surfing is minimised, network resources are optimised and staff are protected from illegal or
undesirable content. Comprehensive and accurate URL classification is assured through the continuously updated database of over 50 categories containing millions of URLs.

Threat Manager. Threat prevention technology delivers comprehensive protection against the constantly evolving web-based threats of viruses, trojans, worms, spyware and other malware that present a real business risk. All web content, including webmail, is filtered through world-class and continuously updated anti-virus and spyware filters to remove known malware. In addition Huntsman technology provides an extra level of advanced  heuristics-based protection. HTTP, FTP and SMTP threat data is analysed and correlated in real-time from multiple sources. WebController uses this intelligence to scan web traffic, blocking suspicious activity before it impacts the business.

Comprehensive management

WebController provides administrators with a suite of integrated management and reporting capabilities that enable effective policy definition, enforcement, monitoring and reporting. WebController is deployed quickly, easily and cost effectively with no on-site hardware or software required and minimal integration. NTLM transparent identification means that users can be identified for policy application and reporting without the need to login. Granular policies can be defined for the whole business or down to an individual user. Real-time visibility of web traffic and threat data together with the ability to make policy changes immediately ensures that web security management matches the dynamic needs of the business.

Comprehensive reporting enables detailed analysis of web threats, network resource usage and user activity. Close integration with MailController provides the benefit of common management and reporting tools for administrators to seamlessly control comprehensive
security policies covering both the web and email.

Benefits of Webcontroller

• Protects against web-based threats including viruses, trojans, worms and phishing attacks
• Prevents lost productivity through unauthorised or excessive employee web usage
• Safeguards employees from illegal or inappropriate web content
• Protects webmail from malware threats
• Reduces legal liability of having illegal content in your network
• Cost effective by optimising network bandwidth availability
• Easy, flexible deployment with no hardware or software required and minimal integration
• NTLM transparent identification with no requirement for on-site hardware or software
• Single point of policy enforcement for multiple sites and remote users with no single point of failure
• Close integration with MailController for seamless web and email security management

Key features of WebController Management and control

• Single, scaleable solution for multiple sites and remote users
• Delegated administration rights
• Real-time propogation of policy updates
• Real-time threat dashboard
• Online secure customer management portal
• NTLM transparent identification with no requirement for on site hardware or software
• Real-time graphical reporting on multiple criteria by:
• User, group or IP address range
• Time and date
• Categories
• Specific sites visited or blocked
• Frequently accessed sites
• Frequently blocked sites
• Reports downloadable as .csv files
• Enforceable authentication prior to user web access
• Multiple, customisable splash pages - inform users of access rights and when access has been blocked
• Management reporting tools and policy definition common with MailController Threat Manager
• Commercial anti-virus engine
• Intelligent threat prevention technology
• Inbound and outbound scanning with no noticeable latency
• Optionally block executable files Access Manager
• Policy definition by:
• User, group, IP address range
• URL category
• URL categorisation:
• Over 50 categories