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Security specialist GFI Software announced that WebMonitor, the company’s Web security solution, includes security and anti-malware features designed to enable small and midsize businesses to provide employees Internet access while boosting network protection. The latest version of GFI WebMonitor provides SMB IT administrators with additional layers of defense to identify dangerous Websites and threats before they can cause any harm to a PC or network.
Combined with GFI WebMonitor’s detection and filtering capabilities, the security features make it easier for administrators to control Internet access and identify malicious Websites and infected content. Recent GFI survey data gathered by polling specialist Opinion Matters found that 40 percent of SMBs have experienced a security breach as a result of employees navigating to a site that hosted malware.
Additionally, more than half (55 percent) of SMBs that use a Web monitoring solution indicated that defense against infected Websites is not their main priority. The company said the findings suggest a lack of awareness about the important role Web monitoring software plays in network protection and demonstrate that companies are not taking full advantage of these solutions.
A Website Reputation Index provides a “safeness” rating for Websites based on their current and future threat profiles. Using this feature, administrators can implement Internet access policies by blocking sites based on the risks they pose, rather than preventing access to entire categories of Websites. According to GFI’s survey, more than 40 percent of SMBs do not currently have a solution in place that measures the safeness of a given Website based on a reputation rating, and 27 percent say this is a capability they would be interested in.
With ThreatTrack, GFI WebMonitor automatically blacklists hundreds of thousands of Websites serving malicious content, including phishing sites and legitimate Websites that have been temporarily compromised. Other features include multiple security engines that utilize multiple antivirus and other security engines to scan all Internet traffic for malicious content and zero-hour Web security, which offers near real-time updates for all security engines to protect against zero-hour threats.
In addition, the platform offers streaming media blocking, which enables administrators to block bandwidth-consuming audio and video streaming elements of a Website without banning the entire site, instant messaging management designed to mitigate risks by blocking a number of messaging clients, including Google Chat, Facebook Chat and other instant messaging portals and soft blocking, which allows administrators to define policies that selectively allow users or groups of users to temporarily override blocking policies after a warning is issued.
“Unlike other Web monitoring solutions that require almost hourly interventions to keep lists updated and approve sites that were needlessly blocked, GFI WebMonitor is a reliable Web filtering solution that is easy to install, deploy and manage and requires minimal IT involvement,” said Rick Rodery, IT director for Saulsbury Industries. “The solution has proven to be an invaluable compliance tool, making it easy for us to enforce Internet use policies — which, in turn, has helped us minimize unproductive Internet use and protect our network from malicious threats.”