CIO.in
White Papers
Fighting the Hidden Dangers of Internet Access

Fighting the Hidden Dangers of Internet Access

Brian Kilcourse and Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partners

Source:: St. Bernard
Published:: Apr 13, 2009
Pages:: 11

In today's business environment, it's difficult to imagine a workplace without access to the Web. Yet, much of the information available to employees on the Internet is not job related. What started as a productivity boon has gradually turned into a bandwidth and productivity drain with huge potential legal liabilities associated with inappropriate use of the Internet by employees. Huge lawsuits have resulted from employees downloading pornographic, racist or violent material from the Internet. In addition, network security can be compromised by the introduction of viruses, worms or Trojans through your Internet access.

It seems the old threat that plagued HTTP traffic, inappropriate content, is no longer the only concern for IT administrators. In addition to worms and viruses, your Internet access is a gateway for all sorts of other threats such as spyware, malware, phishing and pharming. These unwanted programs are propagating at a rapid rate. Even if you manage to stop one threat, new ones are cropping up daily, to take its place. Recently legislation was introduced in the United States to offer organizations relief from some of these attacks. But as was discovered with the CAN-SPAM Act, these laws are more likely to drive cyber criminals offshore. And with the amount of money being made from even isolated attacks, it is not surprising that organized crime would be involved in launching highly sophisticated attacks that exploit an organizations need to have online availability to do business.

In response, organizations have sought ways to proactively control Web access, drivingthe development of a variety of Web filtering methodologies. However, the emergence and growth of new Internet content, combined with the need for simple network installation and straightforward ways to effectively manage large user communities, has made most of these alternatives too cumbersome to employ in a corporate environment. And without the ability to control the invasion of spyware and malware, filtering objectionable content alone won't protect your organization.

This eBook attempts to present some of the growing threats that exploit your organization's Internet access and to demonstrate how a dedicated appliance solution like iPrism can secure your network and prevent the downtime, loss of productivity and other problems associated with unmanaged Internet access.

To download the full whitepaper/case study, please provide the following information:

Email Address: *

First Name: *

Last Name: *

Job Title: *

Job Function: *

Industry:

Company: *

Company Size: *

Street Address:

Address 2:

City: *

State:

Zip/Postal Code:

Country:

Phone: *

Fax:

CAPTCHA

This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

What code is in the image?: *

Enter the characters (without spaces) shown in the image.

Other St. Bernard White Papers

Web Applications Under Attack - Four Eye-Opening Findings

Web applications are under attack from hackers. Which means that every one of your employees, customers, and partners - anybody with a browser - may be an unwitting accomplice in subverting your security, stealing your data, or worse. If that idea doesn't already have your attention, you'll find a wake-up call in a free report, Web Applications Under Attack: Four Eye-Opening Findings.

View all White Papers by St. Bernard