IN THIS ISSUE

Prevent Bandwidth and Productivity Abuse

New CyBlock Appliance

Greetings,

In this issue, check out our new hardware solution, CyBlock Appliance, which blocks IM, P2P, Streaming and more. We also have some great summer specials for existing and new customers beginning June 1, 2009.

But first we´d like to start with an article that continues from our last issue. It discusses how you can use your Cyfin and/or CyBlock product to help you decrease your bandwidth consumption and improve productivity, thus improving your bottom line.

Finally, read about our latest product releases, CyBlock 5.9.3 and Cyfin 7.9.3, and take a look at this issue´s tech tip on new advanced report settings.

Best regards,

The Wavecrest Team

Prevent Bandwidth and Productivity Abuse

Our last newsletter included an overview with some lost productivity and cost numbers that showed how Wavecrest products can save businesses money. With the recent downsizing and budget tightening taking place in many companies, lost productivity and bandwidth due to Internet surfing are still huge concerns. According to research by IDC, 30 – 40 percent of Web surfing in the office is aimed at non-work related Web sites.

In this article, we´re going to discuss in detail how you can use Wavecrest´s products to find those sites that can be troublesome to both bandwidth and productivity.

Bandwidth

Non-work related sites that can eat up a lot of bandwidth include video sites, music download sites, streaming and more. These sites can slow an organization´s network and hinder employees trying to use the Internet productively. Without knowing where this extra bandwidth consumption is coming from, companies often spend more money on equipment to handle the additional load.

CyBlock and Cyfin offer a couple of reports that can help you really pinpoint how bandwidth is being used.

Top Bandwidth Sites — This report lists those sites that have consumed the most bandwidth. From this report, you can easily identify potentially troublesome sites that need attention quickly.
Site Analysis Bandwidth — This report breaks down bandwidth usage by classification, categories and users. This is a great overview report that will let you know if you are having any spikes in bandwidth use by a single user or in a particular category and need to dig deeper.

Productivity

Many sites can be unproductive, e.g., social networking, shopping, games, entertainment, etc. Not only do you have to worry about employees´ abuse of these sites, but many of them cause security concerns as well. Social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace, are a huge security concern for businesses, as users can be vulnerable to attacks through the Web apps and active content on these sites. IT time is also wasted when an employee´s computer or the network becomes a target of these attacks.

Many companies may choose to use CyBlock to simply filter all sites that they consider unproductive, but Wavecrest also offers many reports and other tools that help organizations pinpoint problems with abuse. The Site Analysis report and Abuse Thresholding are great starting points in detecting abuse.

Site Analysis Report - This is a great report that can help you spot trouble areas. It gives an overview of a Group´s or the entire Enterprise´s Web activity by classification, category and user.
Abuse Thresholding - This tool helps you easily identify users that have exceeded their allotted number of visits (in a 24–hr period) to any specified category. This can be set at "0" visits or more. Abuse thresholds can be set at Advanced Settings — Report Settings — Abuse Thresholds, and you can create several policies by user or group.

Filtering Tools

So far, we´ve mainly discussed how monitoring and reporting can help you spot trouble areas, but there are many filtering features that can be used to stop both bandwidth and productivity abuse. All companies have varying acceptable use policies, and Wavecrest tries to accommodate all of them. Some ways that you can use filtering to help stop abuse are with CyBlock´s:

White List Capability - You can allow access only to those sites you enter into a "white (allow-only) list" and block all other sites. Simply use a custom category to build your white list, and block all other categories.
Custom Categories - These can be used as white lists mentioned above or to block specific troublesome sites.
Hourly Blocking - This lets you allow access to any category at certain times of the day in hourly increments, e.g., the lunch hour. You can also create several block policies to accommodate different schedules.

By fully utilizing the reporting and/or filtering features in your Wavecrest product, you can control both bandwidth and productivity abuse and simultaneously improve your bottom line.

Check Out Our New CyBlock Appliance

We recently released CyBlock Appliance, our new hardware solution. Under your control, it blocks Internet protocols such as IM, P2P, BitTorrents, Email and more by Groups and IDs. Plus, it includes all of the filtering and reporting functionality of our CyBlock Proxy product.

The Appliance can be implemented in either "bridge (transparent) mode" where it works as an "in-line" device between your internal network and the Internet, or it can be implemented in "proxy mode."

To learn more about the Appliance, check out our Web site and the data sheet.

Whether you are a new or current customer of Wavecrest, if you are interested in the appliance, please contact our sales team. They will be happy to answer any additional questions you have.

Sales Contact
Toll-free: 877-442-9346 (U.S. and Canada), ext. 3
Direct: 321-953-5351, ext. 3
International: 001-321-953-5351, ext. 3
Email: sales@wavecrest.net

If you are a current customer and are interested in switching to the Appliance, our sales team will be happy to help you transition from your current Wavecrest product to the Appliance.

New Releases: CyBlock 5.9.3 and Cyfin 7.9.3

New versions of CyBlock and Cyfin were recently released. These new versions include:

Enhancement - Arrays. More synchronization functionality has been added. Synchronization automatically takes place now when adding a new member (secondary machine) to an array. Also, using the synchronization button sends configuration parameters from the primary machine to all secondary machines. Note: This feature is not available for the CyBlock Appliance.
Enhancement - Backups. Product configuration data is now backed up daily and stored in compressed files. The ability to restore the product to any of your daily backups is now available at the Administration – Restore screen. Note: This feature is not available for arrays.

For full release notes on the products, please visit the forum at http://forum.wavecrest.net/index.php. Current customers can download the latest release for their product by going to the Administration - Product Update screen.

Tech Tip: New Advanced Reporting Options

We recently added new advanced reporting options to Cyfin and CyBlock. You can configure these options by going to Advanced Settings - Report Settings and clicking on the Advanced Options link. The new options include the following:

Check For New Logfiles. Before running a report, the product will check for any new logfiles. This option is selected by default.
Compress Reports For Email. This compresses the report attachment for read-only reports in an email as a .zip file.
Display Login Name and IP Address. Select this option if you want to see both the login name and IP address for each record in the report.
Include All Group´s Users. This will display a user ID even if there is no data for that ID in a User Audit Detail or Category Audit Detail report.

If you have any questions about these settings, contact technical support by phone at 321-953-5351, ext. 4 or by email at support@wavecrest.net.

Sizzlin´ Summer Specials

Take advantage of the following summer specials beginning June 1 through the end of September.

If you purchase a one-year license, you will get one month FREE! That´s a 13-month license for the price of 12!

Interested in a multi-year license?
No problem. For purchasing a 2-year license, you´ll get 2 months free, or get 3 months free with the purchase of a 3-year license.

New to Wavecrest?
Enjoy the following discounts when you purchase a NEW two or three-year license:

20% off a new 2-year license
30% off a new 3-year license

Coming Up For Renewal?
In addition to getting the extra months free, if you purchase a multi-year renewal license, you´ll also get to enjoy the following discounts:

15% off a 2-year license
20% off a 3-year license

To take advantage of these specials, simply state that you would like the "Sizzlin´ Summer Special" when you order!

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