What Makes Content Filtering Important?

Any organization that truly wishes to safeguard the integrity of the data it is processing will be sure to add a content filter. What makes content filtering important is the rapid growth and greater sophistication of the attacks devised by cybercriminals in order to steal this valuable data.

A content filter will stop this from happening through bringing a halt to staff members presusing web pages that are known to host cybercriminal-placed lures and also preventing anyone from unwittingly installing tracker viruses or ransomware onto a connected device. Using this you can stop email phishing campaigns from infecting your mail servers and avail of other added bonuses such as increased productivity in the workforce thanks to being able to block access to time wasting websites. Basically this involves monitoring and managing all types of web content that can be viewed or accessed on your corporate network. Using a control dashboard you can turn off access to social media services, gamibling portals and online romance pages.

More importantly it disbales access to any website that has either been deemed malicious or may be hosting dangerous software that it is hoping to download to your servers. As an additional level of protection, a content filter will tackle attempts to steal money or data from your business while also ensuring that you are in a better position to comply with regulatory rules – e.g. CIPA compliance obligates schools to use Internet Security to stop children from accessing inappropriate content.

The best content filter features are:

  • Blacklists to tackle malware and stop access to pornographic content or unseemly photos/images. When a request to view a certain website is entered, the website will be searched for on all available directories of malicious sites. If it is present then it will not be loaded.
  • Category filters stop the viewing of defined categories of websites. These categories have been established by ISPs, spam security experts, etc. Using this filter you can switch off access to a group of websites very quickly like, for example: adult websites, online markets and forums.
  • Keyword filters give an additional refinement to the security measures as it permits you to turn off access to any websites that contain a certain density of a specific word or phrase. Thresholds can be established by the network manager top make this solution either less or more sensitive.

Consideration to Make When Investing in a Content Filter

We advise taking the following into account when choosing your web content filter:

  • Scalability: Can the solution grow, or be scaled down, as your group either grows or downsizes: Make a list of the amount of people that are using your network and the actions and permissions that they will require
  • Compatibility: Make sure that everything will work with your existing hardware. The sales team for any solution should be able to quickly identify if this is the case or, if not, advise you what you need to do to bring your hardware up to speed.
  • Flexibility: This is also referred to as granularity and means the degree to which you can fine tune the solutions to specific departments or individual members of staff. For example the marketing team may need access to social media.

Other features of an Internet filtering solution to look for include:

  • Multi-Lingual Filtering
  • Automatic Updates and Reports
  • Integration with Directory Services
  • Minimal Latency
  • Technical and Customer Support
  • White Label Options