Inappropriate staff activities are historically a very sensitive issue. People and their actions are directly associated with the governing body's policies and credibility. With so many people using government-supplied computers with Internet access, misuse may feel like a ticking time bomb. Is it possible and practical to minimize or even avoid the risk of Internet misuse?

Many governing bodies are faced with the same dilemma, whether national or small not-for-profit in scope. With an Internet filter, they avoid significant exposure to the urgency and pain of containing news of Internet abuse in their organization. Solutions are available for public-use terminals, office staff, mobile computers, regional offices, and entire networks.

Netsweeper's filtering technology provides the level of protection and control necessary for a public facing organization. With its on demand categorization, support for mobile computers, and record keeping, you have found a practical solution to manage Internet filtering.

Internet and computer security tools need to be appropriate and diligent. To achieve this, events must be routinely logged, allowing subsequent reporting on activity. The ability to rely on historical data in order to identify trends or to support an action is critical, especially so in a government environment. A system that filters well but has poor reporting will leave you feeling that you have half a solution.

It is not uncommon to receive requests from customers or even law enforcement agencies to assist with generating or confirm customer-run reports dealing with specific instances of Internet abuse. In these cases, there are often three factors to consider to support the allegation: clear demonstration of an individual’s activity, demonstration of the general populace's activity in comparison, and integrity of the log files generating the data. While users expect this level of data, they are also concerned about required disk space, ability to archive and delete, and the ability to choose and customize daily, weekly, and monthly reports to what is needed, not just to fill up email inboxes with useless reports.

The Netsweeper Reporter Server, included in all systems, logs all events in a compact but data rich format. Administrators can choose their balance of disk space to days kept of data. Standard reports are available as well as a wizard to generate custom or on demand reports. Data is logged in a industry standard format allowing data mining for those situations needing it. You can rest easy, knowing the data you may need to support the filtering activities is available.

Flexibility and Cost of Deployment

In a situation where the ratio of funds spent on administration and on actual programs is important, cost of deployment is a key issue. Flexibility to meet the specific network architecture and to work with existing hardware is a real concern.

For many government agencies and public organizations, Internet filtering has become a necessity. A necessity that, if left unchecked, can become an unmanageable expense due to administrative overhead. The ease of integrating an Internet filter into your environment is an essential consideration when weighing costs. Do you want an ongoing project or a solution that just works?

Rarely have we run across a network that did not include some sort of unique consideration: hardware restrictions, internal applications, regulations or standards, and user authentication, to name just a few. As a result, Netsweeper's filtering products were designed for maximum flexibility, which also allows us to boast one of the lowest deployment costs. Get the Internet security you need while minimizing administrative costs.