It comes as no surprise to anyone that threats to companies' cybersecurity continue to grow. As well as the complexity of attacks and the damage caused, it has increased. Even the specific law for processing personal data, the LGPD , is used as persuasive when extorting money from companies that had data leaked.
Furthermore, the productivity factor of the work team, whether in person or remotely, is still much discussed among managers and IT professionals responsible for implementing team control and focus tools.
So, what would be the ideal answer to the question: is blocking websites in the company still important in 2021? The answer is yes! For several reasons that you will see later in this article.
How does website blocking work in the company?
Before understanding the reasons and benefits of using an internet access management tool in the company, it is important to understand how this process works.
There are several tools aimed at blocking websites considered harmful or outside the scope of work, aimed at companies and corporations. Among the most common on the market are Cisco Umbrella (OpenDNS), Lumiun Box , DNS Filter , Fortinet FortiGate and pfSense .
However, the solutions differ greatly from each other, and do not always adapt to all the diversities found in the business environment.
What is common among them is the ability to manage access requests to websites considered harmful or that are not part of the work carried out by the team in the business environment.
When there is an internet access policy that is effective and consistent with the company's needs, all attempts to access websites classified as harmful are automatically blocked by the blocking tool. Rules and configurations are normally made on a cloud platform, and can be applied to groups, sectors or individually by equipment.
The benefits of using a solution of this type go far beyond simply “blocking” websites, as you can see in the next few lines.
Why block company websites in 2021?
As we discussed earlier, DNS query filtering technology is more than just a method for filtering content on the web. It serves as a shield against cyber threats (increasingly developed) and also, in the team's focus, which consequently increases work results.
New digital threats
Check Point's annual report shows that 97% of all companies in the world suffered at least one malware attack in 2020. Furthermore, the average amount charged for extortions almost doubled compared to the previous year.
The strategies used by hackers have also evolved, such as the famous phishing scam, which typically sent emails containing malicious links, and when opened, requested access passwords and confidential data. Knowing that users are aware of unknown links in emails, criminals are using an HTML attachment, where the link does not appear and still forces the browser to open the website in the same window.
Another “cheat” used by cybercrime is sending SMS for phishing scams, then called “ smishing ”, which is a combination of “SMS” and “phishing”. In the attack, criminals realized that SMS makes the threat more effective as most people are not aware of fraud through this channel, in addition to users being less careful on mobile devices.
Another development that deserves attention is the ransomware attack, where the criminal gains access to the company's network, encrypts the files and then requests a ransom payment for the data. Updated to version 2.0, the attack now not only holds devices and systems hostage, but also sucks confidential data from equipment and threatens to release it onto the internet if the ransom is not paid.
In a partial survey of the last 6 months , it showed that a thousand organizations were affected by ransomware each week in the second quarter of 2021, and the second quarter is still half over. Numbers show that this type of scam is becoming increasingly frequent around the world.
A tool aimed at DNS filtering can be a great solution in combating digital threats. Blocking access to websites considered malicious at the DNS layer, which is the edge of the network, eliminates most security problems in the company.
Behavior changes in 2020 and 2021
Last year, with Covid-19, 13 million people started buying online in Brazil. This sales channel gained new consumers, increasing the total number of online customers by almost 30% compared to 2019.
Cell phone purchases also soared and the device now represents 55.1% of the total, equivalent to R$45.9 billion.
Movement restriction measures and the closure of physical stores during the pandemic were the main factors for the growth in shopping on websites.
Furthermore, the number of purchases via social media also increased in 2020, rising from 22% to 34%, predicting a much greater increase in 2021.
In other words, the population has been using their cell phones more to make their purchases, increasing the hours of daily use of the device, including during work, causing more and more managers and IT professionals to look for ways to reduce inappropriate access or that cause employees to lose focus.
Reduction of work teams
We must also pay attention to the number of employees in companies. According to IBGE , the unemployment rate grew by almost 14% in 2020, reaching 13.9 million unemployed people in the country. This number is due to the need to reduce teams and the drop in revenue at physical stores.
But what relationship does unemployment in the country have with the need to block websites in the business environment? It’s related to productivity!
With smaller teams and revenues, managers look for more productive and engaged employees, ensuring that each employee produces as much as possible and wastes as little time as possible on activities other than the scope of work.
Considering the changes in the economic scenario, distancing and behavior in the use of the internet, especially on cell phones by the population, the need to use tools to control internet access in the company is visible, reducing access to social networks and shopping websites, for example, optimizing employee productivity.
Work team productivity
In addition to the company's internet security, blocking websites in the company reflects on the team's productivity.
With the economy weakened due to the pandemic, generating more results from teams online has become a priority for companies.
Employees spend an average of just work week Furthermore, they are interrupted on average 14 times a day by internet tools, such as WhatsApp and social networks.
Data like this proves that team productivity is affected by poor internet use. Therefore, using a tool to block websites outside the scope of work meets the company's desire for growth and productivity, improving processes, task execution time and in some cases even the quality of the tasks performed.
Cost reduction
With the network and internet access protected from threats, problems of slowness and failures in company devices are avoided, generally caused by the installation of malware resulting from access to harmful websites. Problems like this are frequent in the business environment, and generate costs not only in the responsible professional's time, but also in maintenance and unavailability of the device while the repair is carried out.
In addition to the cost of maintenance, the performance of systems and computers can also be compromised, after all, devices infected with viruses make excessive use of the network, causing slowdowns.
Is it still important to block websites in the company?
Many managers and IT professionals wonder whether it is still important to block access to company websites. And yes, it's still important .
As we saw previously, employees are usually responsible for clicks and access to websites considered harmful, compromising company data, and costs for ransom payments for this data in cases of leakage.
Furthermore, the productivity and availability of the company's network is directly related to employees' access to the internet, which can compromise revenue in cases where the internet is used incorrectly.
As we have already said in other articles here on the blog, implementing an internet access policy and also offering training for safe and conscious use of the company's internet can help prevent these problems in some cases, but it will not remedy 100% of the damage. .
Therefore, if you are looking for protection on the company's internet and also optimizing the productivity and performance of the work team that uses the internet, consider using an internet access blocking solution.
Until later!
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