Controlling internet access is a common practice in companies and is increasingly important and necessary. Two main points must be observed when managing internet use in corporate environments: data security and team productivity !
In the vast majority of incidents or security breaches, the gateway to attacks or virus installation are users who are unable to identify possible risks and end up clicking on fake email messages or malicious links on the internet.
See an example in practice:
The most common types of incidents currently are:
- Data hijacking, also known as Ransomware
- Financial fraud, such as changing bills
- Phishing or theft of confidential data from fake websites
- Installation of viruses and compromise of network and equipment
In relation to team productivity, managers need to avoid wasting time or lack of focus on the part of employees with activities on the internet that are personal or unrelated to work. Unfortunately, this is a common practice in companies, research shows that employees spend only 43% of their working week on functions they were hired to do.
Improper use of the internet by employees can greatly compromise the company’s productivity. This waste of time can occur in countless ways, accessing social networks such as Facebook or Instagram, accessing personal email, communication services such as WhatsApp or Telegram, entertainment sites, shopping, sports, among others. According to research, workers are interrupted an average of 14 times a day because of these internet tools and with each interruption the employee takes an average of 20 minutes to return to the original task.
Download the infographic that illustrates employee productivity on the internet.
But how do you define the internet usage policy on your company’s network? The objective of this article is to help answer this question.
What to block in internet access control?
The definition of what will be blocked and what will be released on the internet must come from an analysis of the activities carried out by employees, defining which types of content and services are part of the company's activities and which only contribute to wasting the team's time.
We have two premises regarding the definition of rules when using the network: keep all sites open and only block what should not be accessed or keep everything blocked and release the sites that can be accessed . It is up to you as a manager to define which option best fits your company's environment.
It is also important, before defining what will be blocked, to obtain and analyze access reports to identify what professionals usually access. Then, based on the analysis of navigation on the company's network, implement filters or restrictions that reduce wasted time and prevent access to content that is unrelated to the company's activities.
When defining the access policy, it is important to have common sense and consistency. There are types of content that must be blocked, but some sites can be released for specific sectors or at flexible times. For example, the Human Resources sector may need to access some social networks to obtain information about professionals who are participating in the company's selection processes, this access may be granted to some users or only at specific times.
It is also interesting to take into account the responsibilities of each employee, thinking about the internet even as an alternative for periods of rest and relaxation in short breaks during work, for example releasing entertainment websites at a certain time.
But, how can I make internet use safe and improve network usage in my company with internet access control?
See the main types of content that should be evaluated to define a good internet access control policy
Harmful and malicious websites
The internet is full of threats and websites that can cause security problems for your company .
A very common practice by criminals is sending spam with links to malicious websites that can install viruses and malware on computers. When accessing a harmful website, it installs a malicious program without the user realizing it, as a result of which the equipment and network may be compromised. This is where most attacks occur, such as Ransomware (data hijacking) and financial fraud.
See more on this subject in the article Phishing: how to protect yourself and not fall for the scam .
Therefore, it is highly recommended that browsing on your company's network is protected and blocks any type of harmful website.
The main types of harmful websites can be divided into the following categories:
- Access anonymizers
- Hacking
- Keyloggers
- Malware and spyware
- Phishing and online fraud
In addition to harmful websites used specifically for digital crimes, other types of content can also link to malicious websites or pose risks. Some that we can highlight are: pornography and pedophilia, gambling and betting, violence and file download sites.
Likewise, it is recommended that websites related to these types of content have access restrictions in your company. Because the vast majority of users are unable to identify potential risks and can easily access a page or take some action that opens the door to some type of information security incident.
It is also essential to educate users about the dangers that the internet poses and how to identify risks . Simple actions can often avoid major problems, check out some tips to protect your company from virtual attacks .
Social media
By far, access to social media is the factor that most contributes to a lack of focus and wasted time at work. See the numbers from the Digital in 2019 :
- Brazilians spend an average of 3h34 daily on social media
- Last year there were 10 million new Brazilian users on social networks, an increase of 8% compared to the previous period
Social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter offer a very wide range of information and resources, it is very easy and even common to access your personal profile and get involved with news updates from your contacts, events, discussion groups, among others.
Therefore, thinking about your team's focus and productivity, it is interesting to create restrictions regarding access to social media. An alternative is to define certain times when access is allowed, for example during breaks or the beginning of work shifts.
Instant communicators
Communication systems are taking up more and more of our time on a daily basis. Because services like WhatsApp, Telegram and Messenger allow us to have direct conversations with a very large number of people in a very practical way.
However, using communicators at work is one of the biggest productivity killers, as every time conversations are viewed there is a distraction and conversations can often go on for a long period of time.
Some negative points of accessing WhatsApp and Telegram at work:
- Conversations often take time
- People expect quick answers
- Anxiety to respond to messages quickly
- Waste of time and loss of focus on activities
- Reduced quality in task delivery and low performance
Of course, these systems can also contribute to various activities within the work environment, for example, faster communication with customers or the exchange of information between employees.
Therefore, the ideal is for you as a manager to understand the needs of each employee and implement restrictions according to the activities performed by the team. For example, the company can define that Telegram is the corporate communication tool between the team and customers, thus blocking WhatsApp and other services.
Personal email
Similar to social networks, most professionals usually access email during work, to exchange messages with family, friends, among others.
It is recommended to block personal email or allow access at specific interval times, to ensure productivity, but also rest at times.
Pornography, violence, drugs and alcoholic beverages
It is possible that you believe that this type of content is not accessed by your employees, but reality can often show otherwise, which is why it is important to unrestricted blocking of any type of inappropriate content, such as pornography and violence.
It is also important to monitor access reports to check who is accessing or trying to access inappropriate content. In this case, it is recommended to inform the employee and, in the case of a repeat offense, apply notifications and penalties.
This control is important to ensure that employees understand that they are in a work environment that demands respect and professionalism. With this, you make the employee understand that the important thing in the company is performance and carrying out the activities for which they are responsible.
Audio and video streaming
Streaming services such as YouTube and Spotify are also among the biggest causes of loss of concentration during work and also contribute a lot to the slowness of the internet, as they consume a lot of network resources.
Considering this, it is recommended that there be some type of restricted control for these sites, especially at times or periods of greater internet use, such as the beginning of shifts and days of the month that concentrate the execution of important company activities, such as sending guides. of taxes in an accounting office , for example.
File storage and software download
These sites also contribute to damaging internet performance, as storage services are often used to transfer large files. Furthermore, software download sites may offer malicious files that install unwanted programs on computers.
To avoid risks, it is also recommended to control these sites by blocking them, allowing them to be released only in cases where they are necessary for company activities, such as exchanging heavy files with clients, such as the need for an advertising agency, photographic studio or a print shop.
Games and bets
Another type of content that you might think your employees don't access during work, but accessing gaming sites may be more frequent than you think, especially from your employees' smartphones.
As this type of content will rarely be related to your company's activities, it is recommended to block access without any type of release by time or sector, mainly because this habit can become an addiction and greatly harm the team's performance.
Online shopping
In our reports on the use of the internet in companies, we identified that e-commerce sites and making purchases on the internet are among the activities most carried out by professionals in the workplace.
As these types of websites in the vast majority of cases are not related to work, it may be a good practice to restrict access to prevent professionals from wasting a lot of time searching for items of personal interest to purchase.
Job
These are sites that basically offer job opportunities for professionals.
Unless it is to promote opportunities for your company, it makes a lot of sense to create navigation restrictions for this type of content.
Tip: internet access control solution , you can predict when an employee is dissatisfied with their current job based on access to websites in that category.
Entertainment
As entertainment sites we can list some types of content:
- House and garden
- Sport
- Films and Soap Operas
- Government and Politics
- Fashion and beauty
- Religion and esotericism
- Health and medicine
- Travel and Tourism
It is very common to access this content in the workplace, for example looking for news about your favorite football club or fashion news for the next season.
It is important to highlight that there may be exceptions for each type of content, for example, you can block access to social networks, leaving access only to LinkedIn.
This is because LinkedIn is often used by the human resources sector for recruitment, or you can also release instant communicators in a controlled way, keeping WhatsApp free in your sales team, for customer service.
Again, the definition of an efficient access policy involves common sense and balance. There may be services available during certain rest times and breaks and at the same time allowing employees access to some content of interest to them.
After all, it is important to have moments of rest during work, so that employees can relax and thus resume their activities with more concentration and focus.
Internet access control
To implement internet access control in your company, there are different alternatives, such as traditional Linux proxy solutions provided by specialized companies, which require greater investment in servers, specialized labor and constant maintenance.
Other options are Dell SonicWall , Fortinet FortiGate and similar, or more modern solutions that use cloud resources and are more affordable, easy to implement and manage. This type of service is mainly recommended for small and medium-sized companies, good options are OpenDNS , DNSFilter or Lumiun .
To choose the best option for managing internet access, it is important to clearly define your company's needs and compare the costs, characteristics and benefits of each of the existing solutions.
Why Lumiun?
There are different solutions available on the market for managing and controlling internet access. However, the vast majority require high investment, involvement of specialized technical professionals and require constant maintenance, updates and frequent support. This makes these solutions expensive and often unfeasible, especially for small and medium-sized companies.
With the purpose of filling this gap in the market and offering an accessible and simplified solution to small and medium-sized companies, there is Lumiun . Lumiun is a Brazilian company, which has a cloud-based service and with a strong difference in the ease of implementation and management of the system.
See some of Lumiun’s main features and advantages:
- Fast and simplified installation and configuration without the need for technical knowledge
- No need to purchase new equipment or servers
- No need to worry about maintenance or software updates
- No cost for specialized professionals to implement or maintain the software
- Cloud management, accessible via the internet on any platform or device
- Support in Portuguese via phone, email and chat
In conjunction with ease of management, the service has features that allow complete management and control of internet access in companies.
With Lumiun it is possible to implement different internet access policies, for example, to block inappropriate content such as pornography or social networks, simply click the button for the desired category.
The rules can be flexible, depending on users, equipment and times. Furthermore, the system generates analytical reports on network usage, allowing the manager to make assertive decisions to optimize the company's security and productivity on the internet.
Main features of the solution
- Easy control of key applications
- Blocking access to specific websites
- Access control by categories and types of content
- Real-time access report
- Remove explicit content from Google, Bing and Youtube results using SafeSearch
- Traffic monitoring by network equipment and users
- Limiting traffic consumption by groups of equipment or users
- Integrated management of multiple networks
- Business VPN to facilitate access for external users
If you want to know more about Lumiun, talk to a consultant or schedule a demo .
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