Internet access control has become a very common and beneficial practice for businesses of all types and sizes. With the growth of threats and traps surrounding the digital environment, blocking internet access is no longer an alternative but a necessity for companies .
In addition to favoring the incidence of cyber scams and other risks for a business's networks and information, free access to the internet is also a major threat to employee productivity. This is because many workers end up wasting their available time on tasks that are unrelated to the company's activity , such as:
- Access to social networks;
- Exchange of instant messages;
- Personal emails;
- Entertainment pages;
- Gaming platform;
- Pornography;
- And many others.
To know what should be blocked to increase security and bring more productivity to the business, managers need to analyze what are the main activities carried out by workers, content that is most commonly accessed and resources that can be harmful . The more information the company collects, the more assertive the strategy for blocking websites and resources in the digital environment will be.
Internet access x Productivity
We know that internet access is a fundamental tool for carrying out various activities in the corporate environment. Currently, it is practically impossible to find a business that does not depend on quality internet access . To remain competitive in the market, organizations need to have all the resources that help them increase their productivity and deliver quality products and services to consumers.
In recent years, there has been substantial growth in access to social networks in Brazil. According to a survey carried out by the RD Station platform, Brazil has 171.5 million active users on social networks , a number that is equivalent to 79.9% of the country's population. Find out which are the most used social networks in Brazil:
These numbers demonstrate how access to this type of platform is gaining place in the routine of Brazilians and this includes people who carry out this type of access during working hours.
In addition to these platforms, there are also other types of content that are widely used. According to data collected by Comscore, the networks most accessed by Brazilian users are YouTube, Facebook and Instagram , but they are directly followed by Tik Tok, Kawaii, Twitter, among others.
With so many options to distract themselves, workers end up wasting a lot of time accessing inappropriate content and failing to carry out activities that are truly essential for the business. Even though the internet is essential for carrying out countless activities, it must be efficiently controlled by managers to avoid these distractions in the workplace .
The great enemies of productivity and cybersecurity
Just as the internet is a risk to employee productivity, it is also a great gateway to numerous threats that can put the confidentiality of your information , the integrity of your devices and the security of your networks at risk.
For this reason, in addition to an Internet Access Policy , it is also necessary to have a tool that allows you to block internet access within the business environment and avoid these risks. See below which are the main enemies of productivity and cybersecurity in the workplace:
Social media
This type of content is what can most harm your employees’ productivity. As we saw previously, most Brazilians have at least one active profile on some social network, encouraging distractions and wasted time within the workplace . It's very common to waste hours on social media without even realizing it, leaving essential activities aside.
Potentially harmful websites
There are many websites on the internet that present the greatest risk of promoting cyber attacks and scams. Many of these sites contain harmful content that can pose a great danger to companies. This type of website may contain malicious files and programs that can be used to contaminate devices, monitor users' behavior on the network, steal information, cause slowdowns, block access, and many other problems.
Although email appears to be a simple and safe tool, it can also be used by cybercriminals to carry out scams, steal access and credit card information, install malicious applications such as malware, and many others. One of the main scams on the internet, known as Phishing, uses email as the main tool to reach its victims and steal information.
Pornography and violence websites
Although it may seem obvious to include this type of content in an Internet Access Policy , blocking this type of website is also necessary to avoid problems within the company. Although many managers believe that their employees do not carry out this type of access during working hours, it is important to consider the alarming numbers of people who consume this type of content: 22 million people admit to consuming adult content in Brazil (data from 2022) .
No matter how much trust you have in your employees, it is essential to block content of this type and monitor employee access patterns in order to identify possible suspicious behavior .
Audio, video and entertainment platforms
In this category we can mention video playback sites such as YouTube, streaming tools such as Netflix, Spotify, Disney Plus, and many others. This type of service contributes to the loss of productivity and causes employees to lose focus on the tasks that are being performed. Even though many believe they can perform multiple tasks, it is important to maintain quality and avoid delays by blocking these tools.
Communication Services
Exchanging messages outside the scope of work can also be a major problem for productivity and information security. Sites such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Skype, Facebook Messenger, and others, can be blocked to reduce loss of productivity and prevent possible cyber attacks that use this type of tool to deceive users.
Gaming platforms
Just like social networks, gaming platforms can also be very harmful to business productivity. Even if the intention is to stay on this type of site for a short time, the employee may end up wasting hours playing while tasks pile up and the company's demand suffers.
In addition to these aforementioned contents, it is important to check users' access patterns to determine other tools and websites that could cause harm to the company , both in terms of productivity and cybersecurity. In this sense, we can mention e-commerce sites, sports, esotericism, travel platforms and many others.
The internet is full of traps
Just like productivity, cybersecurity should be a priority within your business. This is because the internet is full of threats and traps that can cause a lot of problems for your company.
There are countless cybercriminals just waiting for a vulnerability to carry out a cyber attack and steal information, damage your devices, cause downtime or some other problem. See below the main risks in the digital environment:
Malware
In this category we can refer to any type of virus or harmful application that aims to cause some type of problem for you or your company.
This type of content can reach the user in different ways , such as:
- Through suspicious emails and attachments;
- Inside fake websites;
- Misleading publicity;
- Virus alert;
- Between others.
Malware kinds of problems for your business. Through this threat, cybercriminals are able to control your devices remotely , monitor activities and key usage ( spyware ) , divert confidential data, block access to company tools and resources, etc.
Phishing
Phishing is one of the most well-known and used threats in the digital environment. Arriving through emails, this type of scam relies on the help of social engineering to trick its victims and convince them to open an attachment or click on a link . Generally, the cybercriminal's objective is to obtain confidential data or banking information to promote other types of scams.
Ransomware
This type of threat has gained a lot of visibility in recent years due to the immense impact and damage it can cause. In the last year alone, the number of attacks of this type has doubled in volume, according to data from digital security company Kaspersky . In this scam, cybercriminals hijack a company's information, in other words: with the help of encryption, the data and systems are so that the business can no longer maintain its activities.
Once this blocking is done, a ransom is required to be paid for the information to be unlocked and returned to the company . This scam has been victimizing companies of all sizes and segments, causing immense financial losses and damage to the company's image in the market.
How to control access intelligently
As we can see throughout this article, blocking internet access is an essential strategy that can make all the difference when it comes to cybersecurity. This type of blocking can also contribute positively to increasing productivity within a business . But how to carry out this blocking in an intelligent way?
Although it is possible, manual blocking is not the best solution for companies. There are several tools on the internet that can help block internet access, but they do not always provide all the resources the company needs. For this reason, it is important to have an efficient and complete tool that helps block internet access more effectively.
It is very important that managers have great control over what is accessed within the company in order to avoid problems for the business. For this you can count on solutions such as openDNS , pfSense , DNSFilter or Lumiun tools .
Until later!
