In order to optimize protection against web-borne threats such as malware and ransomware, it is essential that businesses chose the right Internet web filter. However, with so many choices available on the market, how is it possible to know you are choosing the “right” one? Well, in our experience, it boils down to two main factors – flexibility and ease of use.
Flexibility is important because most web filtering solutions are designed to serve a range of purposes and not focus on one particular industry sector. A number of educational facilities discovered the importance of flexibility when they implemented an Internet web filter to comply with CIPA, only to find the web filtering solutions lacked the granularity to allow access to age-relevant content.
Even the most flexible Internet web filter in the world will not be fully effective unless it is easy to use. One further reason why educational facilities struggled to cope with CIPA compliance was because many web filtering solutions were too complicated to understand. Either the filtering parameters were applied too stringently – blocking access to educationally important material – or they were too relaxed, allowing access to the nature of content prohibited by CIPA.
The Cost of Web Filtering Solutions
For many organizations, the cost of web filtering solutions is the determining factor about which Internet web filter to implement. It is understandable that small businesses and charitable organizations need to watch their pennies, but the cost of an ineffective Internet web filter can be substantial if it fails to protect against malware or ransomware attacks.
In order to reduce the cost of web filtering solutions, organizations should consider cloud-based filtering. A cloud-based Internet web filter does not have the capital expense of hardware-based solutions nor the high maintenance overhead of software-based solutions. They are easy to deploy, auto-configure, and all filtering and anti-virus updates are conducted by the service provider.
Cloud-based web filtering solutions use a three-tier filtering mechanism and a whitelisting facility to maximize flexibility. They are managed via a point-and-click web-based management portal that can be accessed from any Internet-connected device, and – for larger organizations – can be integrated with management tools such as Active Directory and LDAP in order to easily set permission roles and apply acceptable use policies by user, user-group or business-wide.
WebTitan Cloud: A Flexible, Easy and Cost-Effective Internet Web Filter
WebTitan Cloud from SpamTitan is a flexible, easy and cost-effective cloud-based Internet web filter that not only mitigates threats from malware and ransomware, but can also be used to increase productivity and prevent exposure to unsavory material. Our three-tier filtering mechanism includes:
- Blacklists and URIBL/SURBL filters to prevent users visiting web pages known to harbor malware and IP addresses from where phishing and ransomware attempts are known to have originated.
- Category filters, so that access to proxy servers and high risk or productivity-sapping websites can be blocked. This are easy to apply and adjust via the web-based management portal.
- Keyword filters, to fine-tune the category filters and prevent access to web pages containing unsavory material likely to offend employees, guests, customers and/or by-passers.
To increase the flexibility of the WebTitan Cloud Internet web filter, category and keyword filters can be applied by user, user-group, bandwidth, time or IP address. The whitelisting facility uses a simple copy and paste process to add an extra later of granularity, and acceptable use policies can be applied with the click of a mouse via Active Directory or LDAP integration.
WebTitan Cloud - or WebTitan Cloud for WiFi for wireless networks - delivers filtered Internet content with imperceptible latency. Users connected to your network will never know their Internet access is being filtered unless they attempt to visit a website harboring malware or ransomware, attempt to download an infected file, or attempt to breach an acceptable use policy.
Try WebTitan Cloud Free for Fourteen Days
If your business is in the process of trying to choose the “right” Internet web filter, we invite you to try WebTitan Cloud free for fourteen days. Our offer gives you the opportunity to evaluable the flexibility and ease-of-use of our cloud-based web filtering solution to ensure it has sufficient granularity to meet your specific requirements without the need for a credit card or a contract, and with no commitment from you to continue with our service at the end of the trial period.
During the trial period, you will have access to our industry-leading customer and technical support teams. They will help you optimize the configuration of your Internet web filter, explain how to view network web activity in real time, and use the reporting function to identify trends. At the end of the trial period - if you choose to continue using our service - your Internet web filter will be fully optimized with no further configuration required.
To find out more about our offer, or to ask any questions about web filtering solutions, do not hesitate to get in touch. The deployment of WebTitan Cloud requires only a redirection of your DNS server settings. Therefore, you could be mitigating threats from malware and ransomware, increasing productivity and preventing exposure to unsavory material with an Internet web filter from SpamTitan in less than fifteen minutes.
