Why is the Internet so Slow?

It’s Monday morning and the Internet is running at a snail’s pace. As luck would have it, you desperately need to get this report finished for a meeting later today, but you are not able to access the information you need quickly. Sound familiar? Well it could be because someone in your office is watching a streaming video from his/her desktop or because a virus or spyware was unknowingly downloaded and is using the company bandwidth to send out sensitive information to others.

Most companies today understand the risks that e-mail poses to their network, but web-based threats like spyware, viruses and phishing attacks can put your business just as much at risk. Add in the draining effects of unauthorized Internet usage by employees and this can open up companies to additional risk and liability.

One of the best ways to prevent spyware, viruses and phishing attacks, as well as control unauthorized Internet usage, is to use an Internet security (also referred to as Content security) solution. Both onsite and offsite solutions are available to provide the required level of security.

Having an Internet security solution in place can provide multi-level protection such as:

• Blocking access to inappropriate websites such as pornography, gambling, webmail and shopping.
• Blocking malicious Web threats such as spyware, viruses and phishing attacks.
• Enforcing Internet usage policies. This can be configured for different user groups, allowing for a different level of Internet access depending on user requirements. It can also be linked to an organization’s Active Directory or eDirectory infrastructure.
• Keeping applications up-to-date consistently and having a content engine to proactively locate and prevent new threats.
• Protecting users on the entire corporate network. This can be configured to include remote users who may require access to your network.
• Providing intrusion detection and prevention services to protect external facing devices and servers (web-based, FTP, etc).
• Configuring Blacklist filters to enable the IT administrator to decide what sites can be accessed or what types of traffic to allow.

Providing a secure network is one step of the solution. Another is the ability to monitor the traffic that is currently traversing the network. A good Internet security solution has the ability to provide real-time monitoring as well as historical reporting functionality. Historical reports can be generated on a per user/group basis or per traffic basis. The tools also enable an IT administrator to monitor internal devices for potentially infected machines. Notification can be sent via a pop-up message or an email.

Today’s Internet security filters are able to prevent web-based threats such as spyware, viruses and phishing attacks as well as prevent unauthorized Internet usage by the company’s employees. With the ability to provide real-time as well as historic reporting to IT administrators, it allows them to stay on top of emerging threats to the network.